UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


LOS  ANGELES 

LlI^ILnu^Y 


JOURNAL     OF    A    TOUR    IN 
THE      NETHERLANDS 


JOUBNAIi  OF  A 


9>0tttr 


IN    THE    NETHERLANDS 


IN  THE  AUTUMN  OF 


1816 


By  ROBERT  SOUTHEY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  BIIFFI.IN  AND  COMPANY 

1902 


145813 


Copyright  1902  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  <&  Company 
All  rights  reserved  ' 


Note 

^%«  MS,  was  hought  at  the  SoutJm/  sale 
at  Keswick  in  1864",  ly  a  wellrJcnown  North 
Country  hanker  and  antiquarian  of  the  day 
and  is  now  for  the  first  time  published. 


o 


I 


INTRODUCTION 

WAS  not  among  those  persons  who  took 
the  earliest  opportunity  of  going  to  the  con- 
tinent, when,  after  having  so  long  been  closed 
to  English  travellers,  it  was  once  more  opened 
upon  the  overthrow  and  abdication  of  Buona- 
parte. A  journey  which  might  have  seemed 
easy  from  the  south  of  England  appeared  for- 
midable when  contemplated  in  Cumberland : 
moreover,  I  was  wedded  to  the  enjoyments  and 
occupations  of  domestic  life  ;  and  my  wishes  as 
well  as  habits  were  so  disciplined  that,  except 
now  and  then  in  books,  I  never  incurred  any 
expenditure  which  could  with  propriety  be 
fO  spared.  If  a  thought  of  visiting  France  and 
^  Switzerland  was  ever  entertained,  it  was  in  the 
>-,  potential  mood,  and  in  the  paulo-post-futurum 
<         tense. 

ci  It  happened,  however,  a  few  weeks  after  the 

D        battle  of  Waterloo,  that  my  brother  Henry, 

who  was  just  married,  asked  me  to  join  him  in 

[       1       ] 


INTRODUCTION 

a  bridal  excursion  which  he  was  about  to  make 
with  his  wife's  mother  and  sister,  —  older 
friends  of  mine  than  of  his.  They  proposed 
to  go  by  way  of  Ostend  to  Brussels,  visit  the 
field  of  battle,  proceed  as  far  as  Spa,  if  time 
would  allow,  and  take  Antwerp  on  their  return. 
Tempted  by  this  proposal,  I  prevailed,  but  not 
without  much  persuasion,  on  my  wife  to  ac- 
company me  and  take  with  us  our  eldest 
daughter,  then  in  her  twelfth  year.  The  sale 
of  "  Roderick,"  which  had  been  recently  pub- 
lished, was  at  that  time  such  as  fairly  justified 
such  an  expenditure,  and  being  moreover  in 
some  degree  bound  to  celebrate  the  greatest  vic- 
tory in  British  history,  I  persuaded  myself  that 
if  any  person  had  a  valid  cause  or  pretext  for 
visiting  the  field  of  Waterloo,  it  was  the  Poet 
Laureate.  Henry  Koster  happened  to  be  with 
us.  Soon  after  his  second  residence  in  Brazil 
he  came  to  visit  me  for  a  few  days,  and  having 
taken  his  departure  on  the  top  of  the  stage- 
coach, was  brought  back  in  a  few  hours  with 
one  of  the  muscles  of  the  thigh  split  in  conse- 
quence of  an  overturn.  The  accident  confined 
him  several  weeks;  he  was  now  thoroughly 
C       2       ] 


INTRODUCTION 

recovered,  and  easily  obtained  his  father's  leave 
to  join  a  party  of  Lisbonians. 

Our  outset  was  singularly  inauspicious. 
Some  little  delay  had  occurred  on  my  side,  and 
my  brother  had  no  time  to  lose  because  of  his 
professional  engagements  and  the  arrange- 
ments which  he  had  made  for  supplying  his 
place  during  his  absence.  When  we  drove  up 
to  his  door  in  Queen  Anne  Street,  he  was  gone. 
My  Uncle,  instead  of  being  at  Streatham,  was 
at  his  Hampshire  living,  and  to  compleat  the 
series  of  disappointments,  Edith  found  that  her 
two  sisters,  Martha  and  Eliza  (the  latter  hav- 
ing lately  come  to  London  to  visit  the  former), 
were  gone  to  Ramsgate.  She  consoled  herself 
with  the  expectation  of  seeing  them  there,  from 
whence  we  were  to  embark,  but  when  we  ar- 
rived, behold,  on  that  very  morning  they  had 
embarked  in  the  steamboat  for  their  return. 
It  was  not  without  great  difficulty  that  I  had 
persuaded  her  to  leave  four  children,  the  young- 
est only  three  years  old,  for  this  excursion. 
She  had  left  home  in  ill  health  and  worse  spir- 
its; both  worsened  during  the  long  journey 
from  Keswick  to  Eamsgate ;  and  the  best  hope 
[        3        ] 


INTRODUCTION 

I  now  had  was  that  seasickness,  with  the  total 
and  frequent  change  of  air,  scene,  and  circum- 
stance, would  remove  what  began  to  appear  a 
very  formidable  malady. 


JOURNAL 

OsTEND,  Saturday,  23  Sept.  1815. 

WE  left  Ramsgate  yesterday  morning  at 
half  after  twelve,  with  so  fair  and  fresh 
a  breeze  that  the  Captain  promised  us  a  pas- 
sage of  eight  or  nine  hours,  or  less,  if  the  wind 
should  hold.  It  slackened,  and  we  did  not 
arrive  at  Ostend  tiU  four  the  next  morning. 
Sixteen  hours,  however,  cannot  be  called  a  bad 
passage ;  the  average  is  from  ten  to  twelve ; 
my  brother  and  his  party  were  forty-three. 
The  fare  is  a  guinea  and  a  half,  and  you  pro- 
vide yourself.  But  there  is  a  system  of  exac- 
tion at  Eamsgate  which  is  not  confined  to  the 
Albion  Hotel.  Dawson,  the  agent  for  the 
packet,  seeing  my  daughter,  said  that  her  fare 
would  be  sixteen  shillings.  Captain  Aylesbury 
of  the  Lord  Liverpool,  seeing  her  also,  rated 
her  at  twenty.  I  offered  to  pay  him  at  the 
time,  but  he  chose  rather  to  receive  the  money 
at  Ostend,  and  then  demanded  by  his  mate 
[        5        ] 


JOURNAL 

full  price  for  the  child.  The  plea  for  this  was 
that  she  had  occupied  a  whole  berth ;  but 
this  he  knew  she  must  have  done,  if  we  were 
out  at  night.  She  suffered  a  good  deal  from 
sickness ;  her  mother,  to  whom  it  might  have 
proved  remedial,  wholly  escaped  it.  The  little 
food  which  I  took  was  taken  in  commendaro 
for  the  fishes  and  faithfidly  rendered  up  to 
them. 

There  came  on  rain  about  two  in  the  night, 
so  that  I  lost  the  entrance  of  the  harbour,  which, 
tho'  of  little  importance,  I  am  yet  sorry  that 
I  did  not  see.  We  lay  close  to  the  quay,  and 
the  packet  was  presently  filled  with  porters, 
all  speaking  English,  and  all  contending  who 
should  carry  the  passengers'  luggage.  An  Irish- 
man belonging  to  the  veteran  battalion  came 
among  them,  but  he  was  treated  as  an  inter- 
loper, and  enough  past  upon  this  occasion  to 
show  that  there  was  a  jealousy  between  the 
natives  and  the  garrison.  We  ended  the  dis- 
pute by  leaving  our  trunks  on  board ;  and  when 
we  returned  for  them,  gave  the  preference, 
as  was  proper,  to  the  people  of  the  place.  — 
At  the  Custom  House  we  found  more  despatch 
[        6        ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

and  much  more  civility  than  foreigners  under 
like  circumstances  would  meet  with  in  England. 
My  first  business,  of  course,  was  at  the  Bank- 
ers'. The  money  which  I  took  up  there  was 
all  in  French  coin,  which  it  seems  is  current 
everywhere.  Dieu  protege  la  France  is  in- 
scribed around  the  edge.  I  observed  on  a  five 
franc  piece  bearing  date  An.  XI.  Napoleon 
Empereur  on  one  side,  and  Repuhlique  Franr 
^aise  on  the  other;  the  pieces  of  later  date 
have  Empire  Fran^aise^  and  the  Christian 
era. 

Had  we  arrived  last  night  we  could  not  have 
been  lodged  at  the  Cour  Imperiale,  to  which 
Bedford  and  Herrier  had  directed  me ;  the 
apartments,  they  told  us  there,  were  all  full, 
owing  to  the  concourse  of  people  returning  from 
the  Coronation  at  Brussels.  We  were  intro- 
duced to  the  public  room,  which  is  large  and 
wainscotted ;  the  pannels  of  a  light  blue  or 
French  grey,  with  mouldings,  and  a  brown 
edging ;  the  framing  or  interstices  tea  colour. 
It  has  three  looking-glasses,  two  between  the 
three  windows,  and  the  third,  a  tall  one,  over 
the  chinmey-piece.  The  floor  is  boarded,  and 
C        7        ] 


JOURNAL 

strewn  with  sand,  —  an  uncomfortable  custom. 
There  are  large  square  tables  in  two  corners  of 
the  room,  another  such  against  the  wall  oppo- 
site the  windows;  and  two  long  tables,  each 
formed  of  two  such,  in  the  middle  of  the  room. 
These  tables  are  all  covered  with  a  green  oil- 
cloth, which  is  let  in,  like  the  cloth  or  leather 
of  a  writing-table.  The  chairs  are  inexpensive, 
and  well  shaped  for  ease,  with  round  rush-bot- 
toms ;  the  backs  are  of  cherry-tree,  and  in  form 
not  unlike  the  present  fashion  of  broad-banded 
dining-chairs  in  England,  but  rather  more  con- 
cave and  lower  in  the  back.  —  A  bill  of  prices 
is  hung  up  in  the  room :  dinner  at  the  table 
d'Jhbte^  two  francs  fifty  sous  per  head  ;  private 
dinners  from  five  francs  to  eighteen  ;  breakfast 
two ;  apartments  from  three  to  nine  per  day  ; 
bedrooms  two :  meaning,  I  suppose,  such  as  are 
distinct  from  the  sitting-room,  —  the  lodging- 
rooms  of  those  who  live  at  the  public  table. 
Wines  are  from  three  to  ten  francs  per  bottle. 
Claret  is  the  cheapest  upon  this  list;  Bur- 
gundy d'Enclos  de  Vegetan  the  highest  priced  ; 
port.  Hermitage,  and  Ehenish  of  the  best 
quality  seven  francs  each.  When  I  enquired 
C       8       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

whether  Ladies  dined  at  the  table  d'hZte^  the 
waiter  replied  in  his  English  that  the  biggest 
persons  in  the  town  dined  there.  This  suits  us, 
the  dinner  being  at  one,  and  the  vessel  for 
Bruges  departing  at  three :  it  pleases  us,  be- 
cause we  shall  see  more  of  Flemish  manners 
and  customs ;  and,  moreover,  in  the  present 
case  there  is  no  alternative. 

I  went  into  the  court  to  wash  myseK ;  the 
bason  was  most  inconveniently  shallow,  being 
just  like  a  small  sallad-dish.  They  brought  me 
soft  black  soap  and  a  check  towel,  which  I 
did  not  perceive  to  be  dirty  till  I  had  used  it : 
a  bad  specimen,  this,  of  Flemish  cleanliness ! 
That  my  face  might  undergo  its  due  ablu- 
tions, I  went  to  the  pump;  and  did  not  at 
first  discover  that  it  had  a  cock  instead  of  a 
common  spout,  —  a  proof,  this,  that  they  can- 
not afford  to  waste  fresh  water. 

The  bread  is  shaped  like  a  ring,  as  if  it 
had  been  consecrated  to  my  old  Portuguese 
acquaintance,  Our  Lady  of  the  round  O. 
They  call  it  pain  de  trou^  which  may  properly 
be  Englished  "ring-bread";  or  we  should  call 
them  simply  "  rings,"  as  we  speak  of  twists. 

[        9        ] 


JOURNAL 

Edith  May  saw  the  baker  bringing  a  number 
of  them  on  his  arm,  like  so  many  bracelets.  — 
I  perceive  the  reason  of  this  form :  the  waiter, 
who  is  now  laying  the  bread  for  dinner,  cuts 
the  loaf  up  with  more  ease  and  rapidity  than 
he  could  do  were  it  in  any  other  form.  No- 
thing can  be  better  than  the  bread  ;  the  but- 
ter equally  excellent,  coffee  abominable,  and 
no  cream.  The  urn,  unlike  anything  which 
bears  that  name  in  England,  but  not  ugly,  if 
the  workmanship  had  been  good  or  the  vessel 
itself  plain.  It  has  large  handles  and  a  large, 
clumsy  brass  cock ;  and  there  is  a  wooden  tri- 
pod of  unpainted  wood  for  a  stand.  While  we 
were  at  breakfast,  a  man  in  the  street  blew  a 
long  brazen  horn  to  give  notice  that  the  hot 
bread  was  ready. 

The  town  is  handsome,  if  compared  with 
English  towns ;  the  streets  clean,  straight,  and 
spacious.  There  was  in  the  morning  an  Edin- 
burgh or  Lisbon  odour,  evincing  that  unfit  use 
was  made  of  the  windows.  And  to  this  the 
gutters  bore  some  evidence  in  their  colour. 
But  the  maids  are  so  busy  with  their  besoms 
that  little  of  this  remains,  and  the  men  who 
[       10       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

walk  about  with  pipes  in  their  mouths  are  nu- 
merous enough  to  diffuse  a  wholesome  savour 
of  tobacco  through  the  streets. 

The  only  bookseller's  shop  which  I  could 
find  afforded  me  nothing  better  than  a  school- 
book,  half  vocabulary,  half  grammar,  in  French 
and  Flemish. 

I  led  Edith  May  to  a  large  Calvary  at  one 
of  the  churches ;  it  stands  at  the  foot  of  the 
tower,  imder  a  shallow  porch  which  forms  part 
of  the  edifice.  The  image  on  the  cross  and  the 
personages  kneeling  round  it  are  as  large  as 
life,  and  coloured  to  the  life.  In  front,  there 
is  a  foreground  of  stones  and  skulls ;  and 
under  this,  which  is  raised  some  twenty  feet 
from  the  ground,  is  a  picture  of  the  souls  in 
Purgatory. 

The  churches  into  which  I  entered  contained 
little  that  was  interesting;  and  there  were 
only  three  or  four  old  women  in  them  at  their 
devotions.  In  the  porch  of  one  there  was  an 
inscription  to  forbid  the  entranee  of  dogs. 
Near  the  Town-House,  which  is  in  the  great 
square  or  place,  there  is  a  tall  pillar  with  an 
iron  at  the  top,  bent  like  a  shepherd's  crook. 

[       11       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  Ij 

Thinking  of  the  pellourinho  in  Portuguese 
towns,  I  asked  if  this  were  used  for  a  gallows, 
and  was  told  in  reply  that  they  never  hang  at 
Ostend,  and  that  a  large  lanthorn  was  sus- 
pended from  this  pillar  in  winter.  The  market 
in  this  Square,  and  in  a  smaller  place  hard  by, 
is  remarkably  good.  Poultry  and  rabbits  in 
great  abundance,  live  partridges  and  quails ; 
eggs  in  baskets-full,  salt-fish,  whiter  and  cleaner 
than  I  had  ever  before  seen  it,  exposed  for  sale, 
and  in  one  corner  a  heap  of  wooden  shoes  upon 
the  ground.  It  is  surprising  how  commonly 
English  is  spoken  and  understood.  We  bought 
some  grapes  in  the  market.  I  took  a  bunch, 
and  asked  hem  much^  expecting  the  language 
would  pass  current ;  the  woman  replied  four 
pence  a  pound,  —  so  the  money  is  current  also. 
But  she  exchanged  my  shilling  as  a  franc, 
that  is,  as  ten  pence,  —  the  rate  of  exchange  in 
such  purchases.  Upon  our  landing,  a  man 
presented  himself  to  take  our  passports  and 
get  them  approved.  When  he  brought  them 
to  the  Inn  I  gave  him  two  francs,  and  was 
blamed  by  some  Englishmen  for  so  doing; 
they  said  he  had  volunteered  his  services  merely 

[       12       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

in  the  hope  of  obtaining  money,  and  told  me 
that  in  all  fees  and  payments  I  must  consider 
two  francs  as  equal  to  half  a  crown  in  England. 
I  may  have  given  the  man  a  franc  more  than 
he  expected,  but  in  letting  him  take  the  pass- 
port for  ratification,  I  followed  the  usual  and 
useful  practice. 

Most  of  the  shops  have  English  inscriptions, 
such  as,  "  Here  is  sold  every  all  sorts  of  li- 
quor." The  houses  in  general  are  very  good; 
the  gable-end  to  the  street,  and  with  corbie- 
stairs  as  in  Scotland.  There  is  plainly  no  win- 
dow-tax here,  operating  to  outward  disfigure- 
ment and  inward  discomfort ;  the  windows  are 
many,  large,  and  ornamented  with  rounded  or 
arched  tops.  One  house  I  noticed  which  is 
painted,  the  whole  front,  of  a  grass  green. 
The  women  wear  large  ear-rings ;  I  saw  some 
with  silver  necklaces,  and  one  whose  kerchief 
was  fastened  with  a  plate  of  silver  large  as  the 
plate  of  brass  with  my  name  on  the  portman- 
teau. They  wear  large  cloaks  ;  those  of  the 
poorer  classes  look  as  if  they  were  made  of  old 
bed-linen  furniture;  and  some  are  of  patch- 
work. 

C       13       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

Among  the  signs,  I  remarked  at  a  Tobac- 
conist's a  red  cat  smoking  a  pipe ;  it  was  in 
carving,  and  larger  than  life. 

Writing  this  while  the  waiter  was  laying 
the  tables  for  dinner,  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
asking  why  certain  plates  were  reversed  upon 
the  napkins.  They  are  for  persons  who  dine 
here  by  the  week,  and  use  the  same  napkin 
from  Sunday  to  Sunday.  Pepper  is  placed  in 
a  separate  salver,  beside  the  salt,  —  a  sensible 
custom  this. 

Leather  is  not  so  much  used  as  in  England. 
I  saw  a  man  seated  in  front  of  a  long,  low 
waggon,  driving  by  a  long  rope.  Where  the 
streets  cross,  the  gutter  is  covered  with  wooden 
doors;  it  thus  offers  no  obstruction  to  car- 
riages, and  can  be  cleaned  with  ease.  There  is 
a  Beguinage  in  this  street  (Rue  de  la  Cha- 
pelle),  a  large  building  of  conventual  appear- 
ance, with  a  large  walled  garden.  It  adjoins 
the  Church  with  the  Calvary.  The  waiter  tells 
me  there  are  about  twenty  Beguines,  and  that 
strangers  are  admitted  only  on  Sundays.  The 
large  wooden  gates  are  kept  close,  and  forbid 
even  the  eye  to  enter. 

[       14      ] 


JOURNAL 

The  dinner  at  the  table  d'Jwte  was  excel- 
lent. The  dishes  were  handed  in  thro'  a 
sliding  door  in  the  wall.  The  company  con- 
sisted almost  entirely  of  English,  and  not  of 
the  best  sort.  There  were  only  two  ladies, 
who,  finding  no  room  at  the  long  table,  were 
at  a  smaller  one;  so  that  Edith  naturally 
enough  felt  uncomfortable,  and  we  withdrew 
before  the  dessert. 

Our  luggage  (surely  as  little  as  four  trav- 
ellers of  gentle  appearance  and  pretensions  ever 
set  forth  with)  was  placed  upon  a  handcart, 
and  away  we  went  to  the  waterside,  where  we 
embarked  in  a  boat  which  carried  us  along  the 
harbour  to  the  mouth  of  the  Bruges  canal. 
There  were  not  many  ships  in  the  port,  yet 
enough  to  show,  in  these  still  waters  and  be- 
tween these  level  shores,  that  sort  of  beauty 
whereof  some  great  painters  have  become 
enamoured.  A  man  was  fishing  from  a  boat  in 
the  harbour :  the  net  was  extended  by  four 
long  and  pliant  ribs,  like  those  of  an  umbrella, 
and  thus  suspended  from  the  mast ;  and  he, 
winding  it  up  and  down  by  a  windlass,  managed 
it  alone.    It  rained  while  we  were  in  the  boat, 

[       16       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

and  when  we  went  on  board  the  Trekschuit,  — 
embarking,  as  1  suppose,  at  the  very  place  which 
the  English,  in  one  of  Mr.  Pitt's  expeditions, 
so  absurdly  destroyed,  and  which,  when  made 
prisoners,  they  were  very  properly  compelled 
to  labour  in  repairing.  This  was  a  fact  which 
I  did  not  call  to  mind  without  some  sense  of 
humiliation. 

The  Trekschuit,  being  flat-bottomed,  is  much 
more  roomy  than  would  be  supposed  from  its 
size.  The  best  cabin  is  somewhat  splendidly 
fitted  up  with  cut  crimson  plush,  a  seat  cov- 
ered with  the  same  material  running  roimd  it. 
There  are  cabins  both  at  the  head  and  stern, 
and  in  the  middle  a  large  apartment  full  of 
niarket-women  returning  from  Ostend.  The 
confusion  of  tongues  seemed  in  our  ears  to  re- 
semble that  at  Babel ;  and  the  vessel  itself  was 
a  perfect  Ark,  which  some  Flemish  Antiquary 
might  prove  to  be  built  upon  the  traditional 
model  of  Noah's.  It  was  tantalizing  to  be 
kept  below  by  a  heavy  rain,  accompanied  by 
80  much  wind  that  I  could  not  keep  a  win- 
dow open  without  incommoding  some  of  the 
passengers ;   and  this  I  had  neither  right  nor 

[        16        ] 


JOURNAL 

inclination  to  do.  On  the  lee  side  there  was 
luckily  a  pane  wanting  in  the  frame,  and 
thro'  this  scanty  aperture  Edith  May  and  I 
spied  what  we  could,  as  the  Ark  glided  along. 
The  banks  are  protected  with  rows  of  hur- 
dle or  basket-work,  five  or  six  in  depth  we 
counted,  and  were  told  that  they  were  eight 
or  nine  thick.  I  thought  I  saw  rat-holes  in 
the  banks. 

There  were  two  Flemings  in  the  cabin  with 
us,  well-behaved  and  sensible  men.  I  learnt 
from  one  of  them  that  the  Beguines  were  of 
two  orders,  one  being  bound  by  irrevocable 
vows,  and  that  this  order  had  not  been  re- 
stored. In  the  Ramsgate  packet  was  an  old 
lady  returning  to  her  native  place,  Brussels, 
from  which  she  had  been  absent  eighteen 
years.  She  told  me  that  the  Beguines  lived 
in  community,  five  or  six  together,  imder  the 
superintendence  of  an  elder  sister,  for  some 
seven  years,  after  which  they  lived  as  they 
pleased.  Beguinages,  according  to  her  account, 
are  rather  like  Almshouses  than  Convents. 

The  rain  ceased  and  we  ascended  the  deck. 
An  iron  tUler  passes  under  the  state  part  of 
[       17       ] 


JOURNAL 

the  deck,  and  rises  somewhat  in  the  form  of  a 
note  of  interrogation,  or  the  letter  S  reversed, 
(?)  thus.  The  pilot  stood  with  his  crupper 
leaning  against  the  handle,  and  thus  with  per- 
fect nonchalance  steered  the  vessel.  It  was 
drawn  by  four  horses,  fastened  to  two  ropes ; 
but  we  had  so  fair  a  wind  that  their  work  was 
easy,  and  we  advanced  about  five  miles  an  hour. 
The  country,  which  towards  Ostend  had  little 
to  recommend  it,  except  the  cleanliuess  of  the 
houses  and  the  appearance  of  competence  and 
comfort,  improved  here.  There  were  fewer 
houses  and  more  trees ;  and  we  soon  perceived 
all  the  features  of  the  Flemish  landscape. 
Fresh  as  I  am  from  Derwentwater,  I  can  feel 
the  beauties  of  this  kind  of  country  and  under- 
stand how  it  should  have  produced  so  many 
painters.  It  has  everything  which  is  soothing 
and  tranquil :  still  waters,  a  wide  horizon, 
delicious  verdure,  fertility,  and  shade.  Trees 
are  not  considered  injurious  to  agriculture  here, 
or  more  probably  their  value  overbalances  any 
injury  which  they  may  occasion.  The  pollard 
willow  often  bore  no  mean  resemblance  to  the 
cocoa,  its  light  boughs  feathering  on  all  sides. 

[       18       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

Poplar  and  aspin  are  more  common  than  elm 
and  oak ;  and  there  are  no  large  trees.  Their 
shade  might  be  detrimental,  or  the  regular  cut- 
ting is  lucrative.  The  cultivation  seems  to  be 
beautiful,  no  weeds,  no  waste :  the  fields  aU  in 
parallelograms  of  different  forms  and  sizes, 
and  aU  with  trees  along  the  ditches  which  di- 
vide them,  giving  to  the  whole  country  a  wood- 
iness  seldom  seen  in  England,  and  never  as 
accompanying  a  high  state  of  agricultural  im- 
provement. There  is  a  great  proportion  of 
garden  land.  Woad  is  grown  here,  aind  much 
used  as  a  dye  in  the  Bruges  manufactures,  I 
believe.  All  the  houses  which  we  past  were 
neat  and  apparently  comfortable;  the  doors 
and  window-shutters  were  generally  of  a  bright 
green.  The  bridges  over  this  noble  canal  are 
so  constructed  as  to  wheel  round  and  afford 
passage  for  the  vessel. 

We  reached  Bruges  a  little  before  dusk ;  its 
towers,  as  we  approached,  were  seen  very  finely 
over  this  sort  of  country.  A  crowd  gathered 
round  us  upon  our  landing ;  and  a  fellow  of- 
fered to  take  us  and  our  lugguage  for  two 
francs  to  the  Eleur  de  Bled,  whither  Bedford 

C       1»      3 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

had  recommended  me.  The  carriage  proved  to 
be  a  cabriolet,  on  which  the  driver  most  incom- 
modiously and  not  very  decently  sits  close  be- 
fore the  persons  whom  he  drives.  Into  this 
vehicle  the  two  Ediths  were  put,  and  Koster 
and  I  trotted  beside  them  to  the  Hotel.  Upon 
my  presenting  a  five  franc  piece  for  change, 
the  man  offered  me  two,  claiming  the  third 
partly  as  a  gratuity,  partly  for  the  luggage.  I 
resisted,  and  even  in  my  embarrassed  French 
put  him  in  some  degree  to  shame,  maintaining 
that  it  was  at  my  pleasure  to  give  or  withhold 
the  third  franc,  a  bargain  having  been  made 
for  two.  But  whether  I  saved  my  credit  or 
not,  I  lost  my  money. 

The  apartment  to  which  we  were  shown  was 
a  bedchamber  in  the  tower,  to  which  we  as- 
cended by  a  winding  flight  of  stone  stairs.  I 
asked  if  there  was  no  sitting-room,  and  we  were 
then  introduced  into  the  public  hall.  Here 
we  immediately  recognized  a  party  who  had 
come  over  in  the  same  packet,  and  had  left 
Ostend  in  the  morning,  travelling  by  land. 
They  were  sitting  at  their  dessert  after  a  late 
dinner,  and,  happening  to  be  the  only  persons 
[       20       ] 


JOURNAL 

in  the  room,  greeted  us  as  acquaintance.  The 
only  previous  intercourse  we  had  had  was  at 
Ostend,  where,  while  we  were  breakfasting  in 
separate  parties,  the  Lady  happened  to  hear  me 
say,  as  I  was  writing  my  journal,  that  for  the 
first  time  in  my  life  I  had  forgotten  to  provide 
myself  with  blotting-paper ;  upon  which  she 
rose  and  requested  that  she  might  supply  me. 
Nothing  farther  had  passed.  But  they  had 
seen  my  name  when  I  signed  it  upon  leaving 
the  packet ;  and  some  of  those  hooks  and  eyes 
were  now  presently  found  out  by  which  any 
two  persons  of  a  certain  sphere,  in  so  small  a 
country  as  England,  can  hitch  on  an  acquaint- 
ance. Mrs.  Vardon,  the  Lady  in  question,  has 
a  sister  who  is  married  to  my  old  schoolfellow 
and  Oxford  acquaintance,  George  Maule ;  and 
Knox  is  tutor  to  her  sons  at  Westminster,  and 
past  the  last  holydays  at  her  house,  —  which  is 
at  Greenwich,  and  is  called  Crawley,  belonging 
to  an  extensive  iron  concern.  Mr.  Vardon  and 
their  daughter  are  of  the  party ;  IVIisa  Foreman, 
niece  to  the  widow  of  my  poor  old  friend, 
Charles  Collins;  and  Mr.  Nash,  a  deformed 
man,  of  uncommonly  winning  manners.  He  is 
[       21       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

an  artist,  and  has  returned  from  India  with  a 
liver  complaint. 

The  Vardons  had  been  at  Bruges  last  year, 
and  on  their  arrival  now  had  been  welcomed  by 
the  people  of  the  hotel  as  old  acquaintance. 
Thro'  their  introduction,  and  the  good  hu- 
mour of  the  Flemish  character,  we  were  pre- 
sently at  home  in  the  house,  and  as  the  evening 
was  cool,  and  our  feet  somewhat  damp,  we  got 
into  the  kitchen.  No  painter  ever  had  a  richer 
subject  than  this  admirably  characteristic 
scene  affords.  We  stood  in  a  large  open 
chimney,  something  shallower  than  those  in 
old  farmhouses.  Here  large  brazen  fountains 
were  boiling  over  a  wood  fire  on  the  hearth  ; 
and  teal  or  pigeons  were  roasting  in  a  cylin- 
der (like  a  candle-box)  against  a  fire  in  the 
wall  on  the  right.  Behind  was  a  row  of  stoves 
with  charcoal  fires,  where  the  process  of  stew- 
ing was  going  on.  A  dresser  in  the  middle. 
The  roof  had  its  black  rafters.  A  board  with 
nails  and  figures  is  against  the  wall,  where 
each  inmate  when  he  goes  out  hangs  the  key 
of  his  apartment,  under  its  correspondent 
number,  the  key  having  the  number  of  the 
[       22        ] 


JOURNAL 

door  on  a  brass  plate  attached  to  the  handle : 
the  host  is  then  responsible  for  all  which  is 
entrusted  to  his  care. 

So  much  business,  so  much  cooking,  and  so 
much  good  nature  I  never  saw  in  one  place 
before.  We  were  all  there.  The  Landlady,  a 
compleat  Flemish  figure,  fat  and  good  tem- 
pered, with  that  familiarity  which  we  want  in 
England,  shewed  us  her  children,  and  pro- 
duced a  chalk  drawing  which  her  son  Louis 
Souriez  (a  boy  only  eight  years  old,  who  stud- 
ies at  the  School  of  Design)  had  just  finished 
for  his  father's  birthday.  It  was  a  head  of  St. 
Peter;  for  a  student  of  ripe  years  it  would 
have  been  a  fine  production,  and  for  one  so 
young,  Mr.  Nash  pronounced  it  almost  mirac- 
ulous. The  Landlady  might  indeed  well  be 
proud  of  her  family;  I  have  seldom  seen  a 
finer.  Annette,  the  eldest,  reminded  me  pain- 
fully of  what  Nancy  Tonkin  was,  so  exceed- 
ingly strong  was  the  likeness,  both  in  size, 
features,  and  expression.  Tho'  not  more  than 
fourteen,  she  keeps  the  accounts  of  the  house, 
a  business  which  too  probably  may  cost  her 
her  health,  for  she  can  rarely  sit  down  to 
[       23       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

it  till  after  midnight.  The  youngest,  about 
three  years  old,  a  little  bigger  than  my  Isabel, 
is  a  beautiful  creature ;  and  all  have  the  same 
beauty  and  the  same  inteUigent  cast  of  coun- 
tenance. The  work  of  preparing  supper  for 
the  public  table  went  on  while  we  were  seeing 
the  drawings  and  playing  with  the  child ;  no 
person  was  disturbed,  or  hindered  in  their 
business ;  and  it  was  evident  that  our  presence 
seemed  rather  to  give  pleasure  than  otherwise. 
An  English  cook  would  have  driven  us  out 
with  the  ladle ;  or  indeed  we  should  as  soon 
have  exposed  ourselves  to  the  yard-mastiff's 
teeth  as  to  her  tongue. 

The  supper  was  excellent.  Beer  is  placed 
on  the  table  in  half-gallon  decanters.  The 
custom  here  seems  to  be  that  the  first  course 
should  consist  of  white  meats,  the  second  of 
brown.   The  porcelain  is  coarse  and  thick. 

Sunday,  24  Sept. 

UnRrNG  the  night  the  dog  got  into  the  fowl- 
house  and  killed  thirteen  fowls;  but  no  loss 
was  sustained,  for  they  served  for  dinner  and 
supper  just  as  well.  The  mode  of  cookery  here 
E       24       3 


JOURNAL 

makes  any  mutilation  or  disfigurement  of  no 
consequence. 

Our  beds  were  like  the  pictures  in  Quarles' 
"  Emblems,"  and  as  these  are  originally  Flem- 
ish, the  fashion  has  not  been  altered  during  the 
last  two  hundred  years.  There  are  no  bedposts, 
and  the  curtains,  which  are  from  twelve  to  fif- 
teen feet  high,  fall  sloping  in  a  tent-like  shape 
from  a  sort  of  canopy  suspended  from  the 
ceiling.  They  are  of  brown  Holland,  or  some- 
thing resembling  it.  The  bedstead  is  a  kind 
of  box,  rather  more  than  a  foot  deep,  filled 
with  a  straw  mattrass,  upon  which  the  other 
mattrasses  are  laid  as  usual.  And  the  bolster 
is  half  as  large  as  the  bed,  a  most  uneasy 
fashion  for  those  who  have  not  been  used  to  it. 

At  breakfast  boiling  milk  was  brought  with 
the  tea.  Cream  appears  not  to  be  in  use.  The 
bread  and  butter  are  the  best  possible,  but 
the  butter  is  not  presented  in  so  neat  a  form 
as  it  is  in  the  west  of  England  ;  it  seems  to  be 
scooped  from  the  pot  with  a  fluted  spoon.  The 
urn  is  heated  by  charcoal  in  its  bottom,  where 
there  are  holes  to  admit  the  air. 

We  went  to  the  Cathedral  with  Annette 
[       25       ] 


JOURNAL 

for  our  guide.  The  outside  is  imposing  for  its 
magnitude  rather  than  for  its  architecture; 
within,  tho'  it  has  been  injured  by  white- 
washing, it  is  exceedingly  fine.  Large  stone 
images  of  Apostles  and  Saints  (of  a  better 
colour)  are  placed  one  against  each  pillar, 
about  halfway  up,  not  in  niches,  but  standing 
out  upon  a  Gothic  pedestal,  so  that  the  whole 
figure  comes  forward.  Before  each  a  large  gilt 
candlestick  branches  out  from  the  column  be- 
low, but  these  were  not  lighted.  The  church, 
notwithstanding  its  great  size,  was  well  filled, 
and  certainly  by  a  devout  congregation.  Many 
had  chairs,  and  many  were  kneeling.  While 
the  great  body  of  the  assembly  were  attend- 
ing High  Mass,  others  were  offering  their  lat- 
eral devotions  at  particular  altars,  of  which 
(as  usual)  the  Church  is  full.  The  organ  is 
exceedingly  powerful.  The  service  seemed  in 
truth  to  £01  the  Church,  —  there  was  nothing 
cold  and  meagre.  The  eye  and  the  ear  were 
satisfied ;  the  incense  dehghted  another  sense  ; 
and  my  prayer  —  for  I  also  prayed  —  was  that 
it  might  please  God  to  enlighten  this  people  in 
his  own  good  time ;  and  that  they  might  not 
[        26        ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

(as  too  surely  we  have  done)  pluck  up  the 
flower  with  the  weed,  the  wheat  with  the  tares. 
After  Mass,  the  Belgian  soldiers  marched  in 
by  beat  of  drum  to  a  Mass  of  their  own. 
Never  did  I  hear  anything  so  dizzying,  so  ter- 
rific, so  terrible  as  the  sound,  —  no  fife  or 
other  instrument  to  attemper  it.  It  could  not 
be  imitated  in  a  theatre,  for  no  theatre  could 
give  the  dreadful  reverberation  which  the 
arches  here  produced  on  every  side.  Two  men 
with  axes  stood  near  the  altar,  and  the  sol- 
diers, who  were  drawn  up  in  military  order, 
shouldered,  presented  arms,  and  grounded,  at 
the  Elevation.  Mr.  Nash  was  almost  over- 
powered by  the  stunning  sound,  and  he  was 
shocked  at  the  military  display,  which  to  his 
feelings  was  thus  irreverently  introduced.  It 
impressed  me  differently,  and  I  felt  what  such 
a  ceremony  woiJd  be  worth  in  a  besieged  town. 

This  day  fortnight  we  were  at  the  little 
Chapel  of  St.  John's,  so  wildly  situated  on 
the  fell  between  the  Vale  of  St.  John's  and 
Nathdale.  What  a  contrast,  both  between  the 
places  of  worship  and  the  service  I 

Kobbed  as  this  Cathedral  has  been  of  its 
[        27        ] 


JOURNAL 

riches,  it  was  not  apparent  to  the  eye  that  any- 
thing was  wanting  in  its  proud  display ;  yet 
the  lamps,  candlesticks,  censers,  etc.,  were  once 
of  accordant  splendour.  The  monuments  and 
the  pictures  might  delight  and  employ  anti- 
quaries and  artists  for  many  days.  There  is  a 
picture  of  St.  Barbara's  martyrdom,  by  a  pupil 
of  David,  who  took  his  sister  for  the  Saint  and 
a  butcher  for  the  murderer,  —  he  might  with 
perfect  propriety  have  taken  his  master  in 
that  character.  It  is  of  no  great  merit;  but 
St.  Barbara,  or  Holy  Barbara  as  an  English  or 
Irish  Catholic  who  volimteered  some  informa- 
tion concerning  her  to  me  in  the  Church  called 
her,  seems  to  be  in  great  fashion  at  Bruges. 
I  bought  her  Litany  in  Flemish  from  a  nice 
old  woman  who  sold  such  things  in  the  Church. 
She  had  also  waxen  legs,  arms,  etc.,  for  sale, 
and  plenty  of  such  offerings  were  hanging  up 
in  proof  of  the  popular  devotion.  St.  Barbara 
is  the  advocate  here  against  sudden  death,  and 
her  Litany  says  nothing  about  her  virtue  as  a 
conductor  in  a  thunder-storm.  Printed  notifica- 
tions of  recent  deaths  are  affixed  to  the  Church 
doors,  requesting  prayers  for  the  deceased. 
[       28       3 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

Over  some  of  the  tombs  on  the  outside  there 
are  crucifixes  large  as  life.  One  family  burial- 
place,  Annette  told  us,  was  immediately  op- 
posite the  house  of  the  family  to  which  it 
belongs. 

We  went  next  to  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame, 
which  is  finer  than  the  Cathedral  externally, 
but  less  impressive  within.  Here  we  were 
shown  the  tombs  of  Charles  the  Bold  and 
Marie,  his  daughter,  by  the  very  man  who, 
during  the  Revolution,  saved  them  from  de- 
struction, at  the  imminent  hazard  of  his  life. 
Several  writers  have  related  the  fact,  but  with- 
out mentioning  his  name,  which  is  not  to  their 
own  credit.  He  wrote  it,  at  my  request,  in  my 
memorandum-book,  —  Pierre  De  Zitter.  This 
interesting  person  is  a  man  of  singular  benig- 
nant countenance,  with  dark  eyes,  tall,  and 
rather  thin.  He  took  the  tombs  to  pieces  dur- 
ing the  night,  and  buried  them.  For  this  he  was 
proscribed,  and  a  reward  of  two  thousand  francs 
set  upon  his  head,  but  he  fled  into  Holland. 
Buonaparte,  after  his  marriage  into  the  Aus- 
trian family,  gave  him  one  thousand,  and  ex- 
pended ten  in  ornamenting  the  chapel  wherein 
[       29       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

they  had  been  replaced.  But  it  has  not  been 
fitted  up  with  any  taste  or  feeling.  The  roof 
is  blue,  with  stars  of  gold,  and  the  windows  of 
stained  glass,  poor  of  their  kind.  The  monu- 
ments themselves  are  rather  costly  than  beau- 
tiful, —  gilt  brass  ramifications  upon  a  black 
touchstone  ground,  bearing  emblazoned  shields. 
But  few  tombs  are  more  interesting  for  the 
thoughts  and  recollections  which  they  call  forth. 
Louis  XV.,  upon  seeing  them  in  1745,  ex- 
claimed: "Behold  the  cradle  of  all  former 
wars !  " 

Mr.  Nash  pointed  out  to  me,  in  one  of  the 
pubUc  buildings,  a  figure  of  Justice,  with 
wolves  lying  peaceably  on  one  side  and  sheep 
on  the  other,  and  with  a  plumb-line  instead  of 
a  balance  in  her  hand,  —  a  better  emblem,  the 
balance  being  so  easily  deranged.  The  image 
of  Justice  over  the  entrance  to  Dublin  Castle 
always  had  the  scales  unequal,  but  Mr.  Kich- 
man  sent  a  man  to  make  holes  in  them,  and 
let  the  rain-water  out. 

The  Town-House  and  the  adjoining  Chapel 
of  the  Holy  Blood  must  have  been  very  fine 
before  the  former  was  mutilated  and  the  latter 
[       30       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

destroyed  by  the  rabble,  when  the  revolution- 
ary madness  was  at  its  height.  A  little  turret 
which  remains  is  singularly  picturesque.  But 
the  whole  city  is  one  series  of  pictures.  All 
the  houses  are  decorated  on  the  outside  ;  all 
have  an  air  of  undilapidated  antiquity  ;  little 
or  nothing  has  been  added ;  but  in  the  do- 
mestic buUdings  there  is  as  little  appearance 
of  demolition  or  decay.  Everything  was  well 
biult,  and  is  well  preserved.  In  those  houses 
which  are  not  faced  with  brick,  the  prevailing 
colour  seems  to  be  white  with  green  windows, 
a  combination  which  is  very  pleasing.  The 
bricks  for  the  ornamental  parts  are  made  in 
moulds  to  the  form  required,  and  they  have 
taken  a  good  weather  stain.  The  ornamental 
parts  of  every  house  and  the  abundance  of 
large  windows  show  that  wealth  abounded  when 
they  were  built ;  and  however  wealth  may  have 
declined,  the  habitations  are  still  light,  airy, 
chearful,  spacious,  commodious,  as  human  dwell- 
ings ought  to  be.  The  general  impression  is 
something  such  as  Oxford  and  Cambridge  pro- 
duce, —  only  Bruges  carries  you  back  more  en- 
tirely to  former  times.  Mrs.  Vardon  happily 
[       31       ] 


JOURNAL 

said  you  might  expect  to  see  heads  set  in  the 
ruffs  of  Elizabeth's  day  looking  out  of  such 
windows.  The  whole  city  is  in  keeping;  and 
it  has  one  especial  charm  which  heightens  all 
the  rest ;  as  there  are  no  appearances  of  great 
opulence,  so  are  there  none  of  squalid  poverty ; 
poor  houses  there  are,  but  no  wretched  ones,  — 
no  sties  of  filth  and  brutality  and  misery; 
poor  people,  but  none  of  those  objects  who 
make  you  shudder  and  tremble  for  a  society 
in  the  bosom  of  which  such  wretches  are  mul- 
tiplied. All  are  well  housed,  all  sufficiently, 
even  when  meanly  clothed.  There  is  an  almost 
universal  appearance  of  competence,  in  a  de- 
gree which  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere.  And 
the  inhabitants  are  a  handsome  race. 

We  went  up  the  singular  tower  of  that 
edifice  which  forms  one  side  of  the  great 
square.  People  live  in  it,  whose  business  it  is 
to  give  the  alarm  in  case  of  fire.  I  should 
have  copied  a  poem  in  Flemish,  which  is  in 
the  upper  room,  wherein  Turris  loquitur^  if 
some  parts  had  not  been  effaced.  The  chimes 
played  while  we  were  there,  but  the  noise  of 
the  machinery,  though  perhaps  hardly  audible 
[       32       ] 


JOURNAL 

below  and  certainly  not  heard  at  some  little 
distance,  completely  overpowered  the  music. 
There  are  two  bells  here  so  large  that  to  my 
remembrance  Tom  of  Lincoln  does  not  appear 
larger.  The  tower  is  equally  remarkable  for 
its  height  and  construction.  It  seems  origi- 
nally to  have  ended  at  less  than  a  third  of  its 
present  elevation.  From  thence  a  second  stage 
is  carried  up  in  the  same  square  form,  and  from 
the  second  a  third,  which  is  either  octagonal 
or  polygonal,  and  appears  to  be  top-heavy,  as 
if  it  widened  towards  the  summit. 

At  the  comer  of  the  house,  which  is  now 
the  Academy  of  Design,  there  is  a  very  gro- 
tesque figure,  the  size  of  life ;  it  is  a  white 
bear,  in  boots,  standing  upright,  with  the  col- 
lar of  some  order  round  his  neck,  a  shield  on 
his  breast,  and  an  inscription  underneath, 
written  in  the  fashion  of  that  most  provoking 
absurdity,  the  chronogram,  thus :  — 

1417 
T '  LUYster  LYCK 
toUrnoY.  —  genootsChap 
Van  Den  Witten  Weir 
WIert  VernleUWt 
In  De  poorters  Logle 

[        33        ] 


JOURNAL 

I  believe  this  means  that  the  illustrious 
Tourney  fellowship  of  the  White  Bear  has 
been  renewed,  and  holds  its  meetings  in  the 
porter's  lodge.  The  date  is  not  worth  decy- 
phering,  nor  perhaps,  if  I  had  understood 
the  words  while  I  was  copying  them,  should  I 
have  thought  them  worth  the  trouble  of  copy- 
ing, especially  as  a  crowd  of  boys  got  round 
me.  The  portrait  of  Van  Eyck  is  within,  the 
supposed  inventor  of  painting  in  oil.  He  was 
buried  at  Bruges,  and  his  epitaph  is  now  placed 
under  his  picture. 

Hie  jacet  exiinia  clarus  virtute  Joannes, 

In  qao  pictur^e  gratia  mira  fuit. 
Spirantes  formas,  et  hnmum  florentibus  herbis 

Pinxit,  et  ad  vivum  qnodlibet  egit  opus 
Quippe  illi  Phidias  et  cedeve  dabat  Appelles 

Arta  quoque  inferior  cui  Polycretus  erat. 
Ipse  est  qui  primus  docnit  miscere  colores, 

Hos  oleo  ezprimere  et  reddere  perpetuos 
Pictores  stupuere  vivum,  stupuere  vapertum 

Quo  perseverans  est  sine  fine  color. 
Crudeles  igitur,  crndeles  dicite  Parcas, 

Quse  tantum  nobis  eripnere  vivum. 
Actum  sit  lacrymis,  incommutabile  fatum 

Yivat  ut  in  coelis  ssepe  precare  Deum. 

HoC  ita  restaUraVIT  aCaDeMIse  zeLUs. 
£        34       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

The  pictures  in  this  Academy  are  of  little 
value. 

At  the  table  d^hZte  we  met  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Locker.  He  had  been  Lord  Exmouth's  secre- 
tary, and  called  on  me  last  year  soon  after  his 
marriage  with  this  Lady  (a  daughter  of  Jona- 
than Bouchers),  —  the  beauty  of  Cimiberland. 
Locker,  by  the  testimony  of  all  who  know 
him,  is  a  very  accomplished,  excellent,  and 
obliging  man.  He  recognised  Nash  as  an  Li- 
dian  acquaintance,  and  showed  us  a  book  full 
of  sketches  which  equally  proved  his  industry 
and  skiU.  His  advice  was  that  we  should  pro- 
ceed from  Waterloo  to  Namur,  and  so  along 
the  Meuse  to  Liege,  and  he  especially  recom- 
mended that  we  should  on  no  account  omit 
seeing  the  quarries  at  Maestricht.  He  has  a 
sister  in  a  Nimnery  here,  where  she  has  pro- 
fessed. 

We  met  the  boys  of  the  Lyceum ;  they  have 
a  dress  much  like  the  bluecoat  boys. 

Monday,  25  S^t. 

yJUEi  biU  amounted  to  sixty-four  francs. 
After  breakfast  we  embarked  for  Ghent  in 
C       35       ] 


JOURNAL 

a  Trekschuit,  which  has  obtained  the  repu- 
tation of  being  both  the  best  and  cheapest 
public  conveyance  in  the  world.  The  scene  at 
the  point  of  embarkation,  by  the  iron  gates  at 
the  end  of  the  canal,  was  delightfid  for  any 
one  who  has  a  painter 's  eye.  Vast  numbers 
of  people  were  arriving,  many  in  carriages  of 
sundry  odd  forms;  the  most  remarkable  of 
these  vehicles  was  made  entirely  of  black 
leather,  having  a  hole  at  which  to  creep  in 
and  out,  instead  of  a  door.  It  was  of  vener- 
able antiquity.  An  English  chariot  which  we 
took  on  board  was  some  nuisance  by  the  room 
which  it  occupied,  and  the  persons  to  whom  it 
belonged  were  no  addition  to  the  society  of 
the  passengers.  There  was  a  bloody  hand  on 
the  arms.  They  were  said  to  be  Mr.  Peel  and 
Sir  Charles  Saxton,  on  their  duelling  expedi- 
tion, and  so  they  proved  to  be,  though  I  did 
not  recollect  the  latter,  neither  did  he  recog- 
nise me.  They  sate  either  in  the  carriage  or 
on  the  box  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and 
when  they  alighted  they  kept  at  the  head  of 
the  vessel,  aloof  from  everybody. 

The  Trekschuit  has  a  canopy  at  the  stem, 
[       36       ] 


JOURNAL 

somewhat  of  a  bell  shape,  which  must  certainly 
impede  its  way  when  going  against  the  wind ; 
on  the  top  of  this  is  a  painted  plume  of  feath- 
ers. There  are  two  cabins  below,  and  between 
them  kitchens,  commodities  (the  word  is  a 
commodious  one),  and  Heaven  knows  what  be- 
side. It  was  full  of  passengers,  of  whom  a 
great  proportion  were  English.  The  Vardons 
were  there.  A  half-caste  man,  travelling  with 
a  lady  whom  I  supposed  to  be  his  wife  for  the 
time  being,  contrived  to  enter  into  conversa- 
tion with  me,  and  let  me  know  that  he  had 
been  a  pupil  of  Tilbrooke's  at  Cambridge. 
He  was  a  well-informed  person ;  and  I  agreed 
with  him  perfectly  upon  the  injustice  with 
which  men  of  his  colour  are  treated,  and  the 
gross  impolicy.  He  was  the  jfirst,  he  said,  who 
had  been  allowed  to  practise  at  the  bar  ;  this 
must  mean  the  Indian  bar,  for  I  know  of  no 
law  or  custom  which  could  prevent  him  from 
practising  in  England.  (I  afterwards  learnt 
from  Wordsworth  that  his  name  is  Eton.) 
Edward  Blore  was  there,  a  young  artist  of 
great  promise ;  he  had  been  fellow-passenger 
with  us  from  Ramsgate :  and  Ensign  Sargent, 
[       37       ] 


CIO 


JOURNAL. 

son  of  an  Irish  member, — for  Waterford,  I 
believe.  This  gentleman  told  us  an  Irish  anec- 
dote quite  worthy  of  preservation.  A  man 
was  brought  before  his  father  for  having  been 
one  of  the  most  active  persons  in  a  terrible 
riot,  taken  in  the  fact.  Nevertheless,  he  pro- 
tested he  was  as  innocent  as  the  babe  unborn. 
As  he  was  passing  that  way,  he  said,  thinking 
of  nothing  at  all,  he  saw  a  number  of  people 
fighting,  upon  which  he  grasped  his  shillelah 
and  ran  among  them,  saying,  "  God  grant  that 
I  may  take  the  right  side !  "  and  this  was  all 
the  share  he  had  in  it,  being  perfectly  innocent 
of  any  concern  in  the  quarrel,  and  indeed  not 
knowing  what  it  was. 

One  passenger,  hearing  me  erpress  an  opin- 
ion in  favour  of  the  East  India  Missionaries, 
made  up  to  me  and  let  me  know  that  he  was  a 
Bible  Society  man  from  Ratcliffe  Highway.  I 
believe  another  day  would  have  made  us  ac- 
quainted with  the  history  of  everybody  on 
board. 

The  scene  where  we  embarked  was  very 
beautiful :  garden  cultivation  and  country- 
houses,  —  that  is,  suburban  retreats,  —  a  swan 
C       38       ] 


JOURNAL 

plying  about  the  Trekschuit  and  looking  as 
usual  to  be  fed  by  the  passengers,  the  water 
alive  with  fish,  water-lilies  (a  rare  sight  on  nav- 
igable waters,  but  these  are  perfectly  still,  and 
the  canal  is  of  such  an  age  that  Nature  has 
made  it  compleatly  her  own),  —  and  Bruges 
with  its  majestic  towers  to  compleat  the  pic- 
ture. The  weather,  too,  was  as  joyous  as  heart 
could  wish.  We  started  at  forty  minutes  after 
nine,  nine  being  the  stated  hour.  The  wind  was 
against  us,  and  the  rate  of  towing  from  three 
miles  an  hour  to  three  and  a  half.  The  coun- 
try for  some  distance  had  the  same  character 
of  fertility,  industry,  and  beauty,  but  at  length 
we  got  between  high  banks  which  obstructed 
all  view,  except  of  the  long  straight  line  before 
and  behind,  generally  bordered  with  willows. 
No  corn  or  hay  in  stacks,  all  I  suppose  being 
housed ;  many  stacks  of  brushwood,  in  such 
quantity,  indeed,  as  to  explain  how  the  trees  are 
kept  down  in  their  growth ;  very  few  cattle, 
and  what  there  are  seemed  to  be  tethered,  be- 
cause of  the  want  of  hedges ;  very  few  sheep, 
and  scarcely  any  swine.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  there  are  no  field-paths  from  village  to 
[       39       ] 


JOURNAL 

village,  or  house  to  house ;  perhaps  the  ditches 
and  rigid  economy  of  ground  will  not  allow  of 
them.  But  here  and  there  straight  narrow 
lanes  between  lines  of  willows  have  a  charm 
of  their  own,  such  as  I  have  felt  near  Oxford ; 
and  such  as  the  Willow  Walk  between  Tothill 
Fields  and  Chelsea  may  have  had  when  Aaron 
Hill  expatiated  upon  the  rural  beauties  there- 
abouts. There  was  something  very  singular  in 
the  silence  and  solitude  of  the  landscape,  for 
though  the  agriculture  proved  the  existence  of 
an  ample  and  active  population,  we  saw  very 
few  people,  and  none  whatever  in  the  fields,  — 
only  a  few  stray  travellers. 

It  proved  to  be  a  Kermis^  or  fair  day.  In 
one  place  a  party  of  women  were  seated  before 
the  door,  playing  cards  in  the  sun ;  and  in  a 
village  by  which  we  passed  there  were  booths 
for  drink  and  gingerbread,  and  music  and 
dancing  in  the  houses.  In  some  parts,  where 
the  banks  are  high  and  the  course  of  the  canal 
not  straight,  pleasing  landscapes,  tho'  very 
confined,  are  formed  by  the  slope  of  the  dam,  a 
cottage  or  two  on  the  top,  and  the  trees.  The 
dam  is  often,  perhaps  generally,  made  in  two 
C       40       ] 


JOURNAL 

shelves  or  steps,  like  the  first  and  second  of  a 
Mexican  Cu,  and  there  are  frequent  arches 
under  it  to  communicate  with  ditches  on  the 
other  side,  sometimes,  but  I  think  not  always, 
with  sluices.  When  we  met  another  vessel, 
or  wanted  to  have  a  bridge  wheeled  roimd  for 
our  passage,  the  man  at  the  helm  either  blew 
a  pocket  whistle,  or  rung  a  bell,  or  set  up  a 
Flemish  halloo. 

We  had  an  excellent  dinner,  included  in  the 
fare  of  five  francs  a  head. 

Passed  some  barges  laden  with  the  most  of- 
fensive of  all  manure,  for  nothing,  it  seems, 
from  which  profit  can  be  extracted,  is  wasted 
in  Flanders.  Before  I  discovered  whence  the 
intolerable  stench  proceeded,  the  Flemish  gold- 
finders  were  greatly  amused  at  seeing  me  hold 
my  nose.  We  went  by  some  good  country- 
houses  with  ornamented  grounds ;  they  are 
generally  white  with  green  windows.  Two  of 
these  villas  were  shut  up.  The  country  near 
Ghent  is  less  beautiful  than  about  Bruges ; 
but  the  towers  indicated  the  former  wealth 
and  dignity  of  the  city  which  we  were  ap- 
proaching. 

[       41       ] 


JOURNAL 

When  we  reached  the  quay  it  was  crowded 
with  spectators,  —  some  thousands  certainly 
had  assembled,  as  if  all  the  idle  part  of  the 
population  regarded  the  arrival  of  the  Trek- 
schuit  as  a  sight,  and  were  waiting  for  it.  Mr. 
Vardon,  who  knew  what  a  scene  of  confusion 
would  be  occasioned  by  the  rush  of  boys  and 
porters  contending  for  luggage,  arranged  the 
commissariat  part  of  the  business  well.  I  car- 
ried off  the  ladies  in  a  coach,  and  the  baggage 
followed  upon  a  hand-cart,  he  and  Koster  con- 
ducting it.  It  was  about  seven  o'clock  when 
we  reached  the  Hotel  de  Flandres.  Most  of 
the  English  passengers  learnt  where  we  were 
going  and  followed  us,  but  few  of  them  could 
obtain  room.  Mrs.  Vardon  had  been  here  be- 
fore and  knew  the  landlady,  so  that  she  secured 
beds  for  our  united  party.  The  public  room  is 
gaily  fitted  up  with  paper  representing  East 
Indian  scenery,  and  good  of  its  kind ;  a  sort  of 
panorama,  which  reminded  Mr.  Nash  of  the 
country  wherein  he  had  spent  so  many  years. 
Supt  at  the  table  d^hbte^  where  some  fine  peo- 
ple, women  as  well  as  men,  came  after  the 
play. 

[       42       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

Tuesday^  26  S&pt. 

Xhe  King  of  France's  suite  were  at  this 
hotel.  The  Landlord  spoke  of  the  King's  apathy 
in  a  manner  which  implied  much  indignation, 
though  he  expressed  none.  "  He  ate  well  and 
drank  well,"  were  his  words,  "while  every- 
thing was  at  stake."  When  the  officer  arrived 
with  tidings  of  the  victory,  the  King  was 
asleep,  and  his  attendants  said  that  he  must 

not  be  disturbed ;  but  Lord ,  who  brought 

the  news,  insisted  upon  seeing  him  immediately. 
The  Prince  of  Orange  has  won  the  hearts  of 
the  people  by  the  part  he  bore  at  Waterloo. 
He  is  a  brave  gar9on,  they  say,  and  they 
frankly  add  that  they  care  not  how  soon  his 
father  may  please  to  die  and  make  way  for 
him.  A  boy  here  was  quite  shocked  when  Mrs. 
Vardon,  forming  her  opinion  from  a  portrait, 
observed  that  the  Prince  was  like  his  Mother. 
Ah^  non^  Madame,  elle  est  si  vilaine,  elle  est  si 
laide  !  He  could  not  bear  that  his  hero  should 
not  be  thought  beautiful  as  well  as  brave.  His 
wound  teUs  greatly  in  his  favour.  The  wish  here 
is  that  he  may  marry  an  English  Princess,  not 
C       43       ] 


JOURNAL 

a  Eussian  as  is  now  talked  of.  Our  Landlord 
says  that  they  can  never  do  enough  for  the 
English.  This  place  was  in  the  utmost  alarm 
on  the  sixteenth,  and  the  two  succeeding  days. 
He  had  sent  off  part  of  his  property,  and 
had  packed  up  all  he  could  for  removal,  being 
certain  that  if  the  French  were  victorious, 
his  house  would  be  marked  for  pillage.  Fear 
made  his  wife  so  ill  that  she  took  to  her  bed, 
and  he  says  that  if  the  allies  had  been  defeated, 
he  is  sure  she  would  have  died.  Even  the  joy 
of  security  did  not  restore  her  at  once,  and 
when  the  wounded  were  brought  here,  she  sate 
the  whole  day  bolstered  up  in  bed,  tearing 
linen  for  bandages  and  scraping  lint.  Wine  and 
water  for  the  wounded  was  mixed  in  the  street 
by  pailf  uUs.  Lord  Uxbridge  was  lodged  in  an 
adjoining  house,  where  he  could  be  quieter 
than  in  this,  and  his  food  was  taken  from 
hence. 

Ghent,  tho'  a  fine  city,  is  far  less  impres- 
sive than  Bruges,  a  great  part  being  more  mod- 
em, and  all  that  is  modem  proportionately 
in  worse  taste.  The  Cathedral  is  not  such  an 
edifice  as  might  be  expected  in  a  place  of  such 
[       44       ] 


JOURNAL 

antiquity  and  ancient  opulence ;  the  tower  is 
not  remarkable,  and  the  body  of  the  building 
was  built  in  a  mean  age,  the  former  one  hav- 
ing been  destroyed  by  lightning  in  1641.  The 
crypt,  however,  is  curious ;  this  is  as  old  as 
the  days  of  Charlemagne,  and  service  is  still 
performed  in  its  chapels ;  but  there  is  a  cer- 
tain air  of  neglect,  as  well  as  of  dampness, 
there,  which  it  is  melancholy  to  observe.  The 
pulpit  is  a  fine  thing,  with  marble  statues 
about  it,  and  a  marble  tree  with  a  gilt  serpent 
twisted  about  its  branches,  more  probably  re- 
presenting the  brazen  serpent,  I  think,  than 
the  tempter.  An  antiquary  would  find  much 
to  interest  him  in  the  pictures  in  the  crypt. 
The  most  remarkable  is  that  of  a  Bishop,  on 
his  knees,  reading  these  words,  "It  is  ap- 
pointed to  all  men  to  die,"  upon  a  scroll  which 
Death  is  presenting  to  him.  The  skeleton,  I 
know  not  why,  is  gilt,  the  rest  of  the  monu- 
ment being  marble.  Our  cicerone  told  us  that 
this  Bishop  was  put  to  death  at  Madrid  about 
the  year  1660,  and  that  the  intention  of  the 
artist  was  to  express  that  he  resigned  himself 
to  his  fate  there  as  willingly  as  if  it  had  been 
[       46       ] 


JOURNAL 

in  his  own  country.  I  believe  the  history  as 
Kttle  as  the  explanation.^ 

The  Church  of  St.  James,  here  called  St. 
Jacob,  struck  us  as  an  immense  building,  more 
important  in  size  than  St.  Bavon's,  which  is 
the  Cathedral ;  but  upon  entering,  it  appears 
smaller  than  we  had  expected  to  find  it.  Per- 
haps this  deception  may  be  accoimted  for  by 
the  want  of  any  decoration  without  and  the 
profusion  of  it  within. 

I  should  not  have  guessed,  after  walking 
over  the  town,  that  the  bridges  were  so  nu- 
merous; they  are,  however,  more  than  three 
hundred,  and  the  city,  by  its  rivers  and  canals, 
is  divided  into  six  and  twenty  islands.  The 
bridges  are  all  of  wood,  and  add  nothing  to 
the  beauty  of  the  place;  but  it  seems  they 
have  added  freely  to  the  insecurity  of  the  in- 

^  The  truth  is  that  the  sculptor  borrowed  the  conception 
from  the  monument  of  Cardinal  Erardus  a  Marca,  who 
died  1538,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Lambert's  at  Lidge,  of 
which  place  he  was  Bishop.  "  Yisitur  inibi  statna  ejus 
£enea,  ad  viynm  (ut  volnnt)  afformata,  et  genibus  nixa ;  cui 
adstat  imago  Mortis,  sic  ut  fieri  solet  expressa,  cum  brcTis- 
simo  isto  sed  scito  admodum  epitaphio  :  Erardus  a  Marca, 
mortem  habens  prss  oculis,  vivus  posuit." 

C        46        ] 


JOURNAL 

habitants,  and  that  in  a  frightful  manner.  It 
has  been  a  recent  practice  for  villains  to 
stretch  ropes  across  them  in  the  dusk  of  the 
evening,  and  tripping  up  the  passengers  by 
this  means,  rob  and  murder  them  and  throw 
their  bodies  into  the  water.  On  this  account, 
last  year  centinels  were  ordered  to  be  stationed 
at  the  bridges,  but  we  saw  none,  and  the  city 
is  ill-hghted.  In  this  respect,  therefore,  the 
police  is  bad,  and  yet  no  city  stands  in  need 
of  a  more  vigilant  one,  morals  here  being  so 
abominably  depraved.  There  are  at  the  time 
nine  hundred  and  forty  persons  in  the  house  of 
correction.  The  doors  of  the  theatre  are  beset 
by  boys  in  the  regular  exercise  of  their  busi- 
ness as  pimps.  One  of  these  young  wretches 
accosted  Mr.  Vardon  last  year,  and  ojffered  to 
conduct  him  to  his  sister ;  he  had  introduced 
eleven  English  gentlemen  to  her,  he  said,  and 
they  had  all  been  tres  content  with  her.  These 
imps  of  the  Devil  will  sometimes  make  other 
propositions,  for  which  an  Englishman  in  his 
own  country,  if  he  did  not  deliver  them  over 
to  justice,  would  send  them  as  far  on  the  road 
to  the  Devil  as  a  kick  would  carry  them. 
[       47       ] 


JOURNAL 

I  observed  in  many  houses  reflecting  cam- 
eras fixed  to  the  windows  of  the  first  floor, —  a 
pretty  device  for  bringing  the  moving  picture 
of  the  street  into  the  apartment.  This,  I  be- 
lieve, is  very  usual  in  these  parts.  The  farri- 
ers have  an  iron  bar,  to  which  the  horse's  leg 
is  fastened  when  it  is  shod.  Others  have  a 
more  formidable  apparatus,  —  a  frame  before 
the  door,  into  which  the  horse  enters,  and,  be- 
ing confined  there  as  in  a  cage,  is  unable  to 
move  in  any  direction.  The  horses  are  remark- 
ably large  and  fine ;  it  was  not  without  reason 
that  the  Flanders  mares  had  their  reputation 
in  former  times.  Few  creatures  seem  to  be 
exempt  from  labour  here:  the  dogs  are  com- 
monly employed  In  draught,  and  the  poor 
things  labour  with  a  willingness  of  exertion 
which  I  was  sorry  to  see  overtasked  sometimes, 
and  often  not  well  applied.  Four  very  large 
bulldogs,  abreast,  were  drawing  a  butcher's 
cart,  and  one  cart  I  saw  drawn  by  a  goat.  In 
general,  they  use  long,  low,  trough-shaped 
carts,  which  rattle  along  the  streets  like  can- 
non. 

I  picked  up  an  Italian  poem  upon  the  tak- 
C        48        ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

ing  of  Constantinople  by  the  Latins,  "  L'  Im- 
perio  Vendicato,"  by  Antonio  Caraccio,  Barone 
di  Corano.  But  Ghent  is  a  bad  place  for  find- 
ing books ;  excepting  new  French  publications, 
it  is  surprising,  considering  the  size  and  wealth 
and  old  importance  of  the  city,  how  few  are 
to  be  found.  Some,  however,  I  bought  of  the 
first  bookseller  there,  G.  de  Busscher  et  fils, 
Place  de  la  Calandre :  very  obliging  persons. 
They  live  in  a  house  which,  if  it  were  in  Lon- 
don, would  be  thought  a  desirable  residence 
for  one  of  the  fiirst  nobility,  and  they  pre- 
sented us  grapes  from  the  garden.  Here  I  saw 
some  music  called  "The  Battle  of  Waterloo." 
The  battle  of  Waterloo  set  to  music !  I  could 
not  help  observing  to  M.  de  Busscher  that  the 
music  which  had  been  heard  upon  the  field 
was  of  a  very  different  kind.  Mrs.  Vardon 
gave  Edith  May  a  very  beautiful  book  of  Dutch 
costumes,  which  are  exceedingly  picturesque. 
There  was  a  fine  copy  of  Houbraken's  "  Lives 
of  the  Painters,"  on  which  I  laid  hands,  but 
resigned  it  to  Mr.  Nash,  who,  as  an  artist,  was 
better  entitled  to  become  the  possessor.  With 
what  I  purchased,  these  were  sufficient  to 
[       49       ] 


JOURNAL 

make  up  a  small  package,  which  the  bookseller 
will  consign  to  Longmans'  care. 

The  Hanoverians  are  not  liked  here.  Hano- 
vauriens,  they  are  called.  But  the  Prussians 
are  abominated ;  we  hear  of  nothing  but  their 
insolence  and  brutality,  —  their  conduct  to- 
wards women  is  said  to  have  been  even  worse 
than  that  of  the  French.  This  it  is,  to  make 
nations  military ! 

Our  Landlord  took  us  to  his  garden,  which 
is  in  the  town.  It  was  full  of  excellent  fruit, 
but  withal  so  damp  as  to  strike  one  with  an 
aguish  feeling.  Here  he  had  a  summer-house, 
fitted  up  with  a  sofa  and  some  English  prints, 
and  he  thought  this  place  a  little  Eden.  The 
delight  which  these  people  and  their  neigh- 
bours, the  Dutch,  take  in  such  gardens  and 
pleasure-houses  is  a  pleasing  part  of  their 
national  character. 

We  went  to  the  play  in  the  evening.  The 
piece  was  called  "  Azemia,  or,  the  Savages." 
The  principal  female  character  was  drest  in 
a  petticoat  which  did  not  reach  the  knees,  and 
close-fitting,  flesh-colour  drawers;  even  upon 
our  opera-stage,  this  would  not  have  been  en- 
[       60       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

dured.  The  house  was  very  ill  lit ;  the  scen- 
ery bad  and  dirty.  The  music  was  said  to  be 
good.  I  did  not  stay  long,  but  leaving  the 
party  there,  returned  to  the  hotel,  and  sate 
down  to  my  journal,  till  they  came  home  to 
the  tahle  d'hZte.  We  had  dined  at  it,  and  were 
therefore  quite  ready  for  supper. 

Wednesday,  27  Sept. 

W  E  ascended  the  Belfrey  in  which  Eoland 
the  great  bell  hangs.  The  tower  does  not  form 
part  of  a  church,  but  there  is  a  prison  for 
debtors  connected  with  it.  I  do  not  remember 
any  one  in  which  the  ascent  is  more  pictur- 
esque. The  stone  steps  are  so  worn  away  by 
long  use  that  they  are  now  faced  with  iron, 
and  much  care  is  required  in  descending  lest 
the  foot  should  hitch  in  these  iron  frames, 
where  a  fall  would  be  terribly  serious.  In  ond 
place  near  the  top  there  is  a  long,  low,  straight 
flight  of  stone  steps,  than  which  nothing  more 
dungeonish  can  be  imagined.  This  tower, 
though  not  the  highest  in  Ghent,  is  the  most  re- 
markable object  there,  and  it  commands  the 
whole  panorama.  The  great  beU  Eoland  is  said 
[       51       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

to  weigh  eleven  thousand  pounds.  Roland's 
horn  I  suspect  could  not  have  been  heard  so  far. 
The  carillons  are  above  it,  in  a  place  to  which 
you  climb  by  an  ascent  more  resembling  lad- 
ders than  stairs.  I  delight  in  chimes  and 
quarter-boys,  they  are  good-natured,  chearful, 
accommodating  devices ;  proofs  that  neither 
poverty  nor  parcimony  were  prevailing  when 
they  were  set  up.  When  Christ  Church,  Bris- 
tol (in  which  I  was  christened),  was  rebuilt, 
my  Father,  who  was  churchwarden  that  year, 
used  his  utmost  endeavours  to  preserve  the 
quarter-boys,  and  offered  to  subscribe  for  their 
re-establishment;  he  had  known  them  more 
than  twenty  years,  and  missed  them  like  old 
acquaintance.  But  the  saving  spirit  prevailed, 
and  they  who  have  since  been  born  in  that 
parish  have  one  recollection  the  less  to  attach 
them  to  it.  On  the  top  of  the  Belf rey  are  four 
little  round  towers,  one  at  each  corner,  each 
ending  in  a  point  with  its  gilt  vane.  The 
Dragon  on  the  summit  is  said  to  have  been  sent 
by  Count  Baldwin  9th,  from  Constantinople. 

The  Stadthouse,  which  is  near  this  tower, 
is  a  large,  stately  pile,  at  the  corner  of  two 
[       62       ] 


JOURNAL 

streets,  but  the  one  front  has  been  modern- 
ized, about  a  century  (I  suppose)  ago,  in  a 
sort  of  Grecian  style,  which  accords  miserably 
with  the  more  characteristic  and  picturesque 
architecture  of  the  original  building.  It  is  so 
surrounded  with  houses  that  there  is  no  obtain- 
ing a  good  view  of  it  from  any  point. 

I  found  a  very  intelligent  young  man  at  the 
public  Ubrary,  evidently  poor  and  studious,  in 
dirty  but  scholar-like  costume.  Upon  my  en- 
quiring how  I  could  procure  a  set  of  the  "  Acta 
Sanctorum  "  (which  was  one  object  of  my  jour- 
ney), he  proposed  to  exchange  a  set  and  other 
duplicates  in  that  collection  for  English  works 
which  were  wanting  there.  To  this  I  gladly 
assented,  looked  out  several  great  works  im- 
portant to  my  pursuits,  and  was  referred  to 
M.  Venhulten  at  Brussels,  as  the  person  who, 
when  the  Mayor  should  have  given  his  consent, 
would  have  power  to  conclude  the  arrange- 
ment. The  young  librarian  showed  me  with 
great  satisfaction  a  passage  in  the  "Acta"  where 
Napoleon  occurs  as  the  name  of  a  Devil.  It 
is  in  the  life  of  S.  Lita.  The  library  is  a  fine 
collection,  containing,  no  doubt,  all  that  has 
C       63       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

been  saved  from  the  wreck  of  so  many  convents. 
The  place  in  which  it  is  kept  was  formerly 
a  church  (St.  Anne's).  Indeed,  the  organ  is 
still  there ;  and  there  are  many  pictures  in 
imitation  of  bas-relief,  which  they  resemble  so 
perfectly  as  to  produce  a  provoking  deception. 
There  were  such  in  the  great  Church,  on  each 
side  the  quire,  the  first  I  had  ever  seen.  For 
painting  to  imitate  sculpture  is  certainly  a 
perversion  of  the  art ;  but  if  a  man  so  igno- 
rant in  matters  of  art  may  have  an  opinion 
upon  the  subject,  I  think  these  imitations  show 
that  much  more  may  be  done  in  bas-relief 
than  has  ever  been  attempted.  This  is  a 
favourite  notion  of  Miss  Barker's,  and  now  I 
can  understand  what  she  means  by  it. 

But  the  most  interesting  object  in  Ghent  to 
me,  and  indeed  the  most  remarkable,  is  the 
Beguinage,  which  is  the  principal  establish- 
ment of  the  order,  and  very  much  the  largest. 
It  is  at  one  end  of  the  city,  and  entirely  en- 
closed, being  indeed  a  little  town  or  world  of 
itself.  You  enter  thro'  a  gateway,  where  there 
is  a  statue  of  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary,  the 
patroness  of  the  institution.  The  space  en- 
C       64       ] 


JOURNAL 

closed  cannot  be  less  than  the  area  of  the 
whole  town  of  Keswick ;  but  the  Beguinage 
itself  is  unlike  almshouse,  college,  village,  or 
town.  It  is  a  collection  of  contiguous  houses 
of  different  sizes,  each  with  a  small  garden  in 
front,  and  a  high,  well-built  brick  wall  enclos- 
ing them  all.  Upon  every  door  is  the  name, 
not  of  the  inhabitants,  but  of  the  Saint  under 
whose  protection  the  house  is  placed ;  but 
there  is  no  opening  in  the  door  through  which 
anything  can  be  seen.  There  are  several 
streets  thus  built,  with  houses  on  both  sides ; 
the  silence  and  solitude  of  such  streets  may 
easily  be  imagined,  and  the  effect  is  very  sin- 
gular upon  coming  from  the  busy  streets  of 
Ghent.  You  seem  to  be  in  a  different  world. 
There  is  a  large  church  within  the  enclosure ; 
a  burying-groimd  in  which  there  are  no  monu- 
ments ;  a  branch  from  one  of  the  many  rivers 
or  canals  wherewith  Ghent  is  intersected,  in 
which  the  washing  of  the  community  is  per- 
formed, from  a  large  boat ;  and  a  large  piece 
of  ground  planted  with  trees  where  the  clothes 
are  dried. 

Our  appearance  here,  and  the  evident  curi- 
[       65       ] 


JOURNAL 

osity  with  which  we  were  perambulating  a 
place  seldom  visited  by  strangers,  attracted 
notice,  and  we  were  at  length  courteously  ac- 
costed by  a  sister  who  proved  to  be  the  second 
personage  in  the  community.  She  showed  us 
the  interior,  and  gave  us  such  explanations  as 
we  desired.  It  is  curious  that  she  seemed  to 
know  nothing  of  the  origin  of  the  order,  nor  by 
whom  it  was  founded,  nor  could  she  refer  to  any 
book  containing  either  its  history  or  its  rule. 

According  to  this  Lady,  there  are  about  six 
thousand  Beguines  in  Brabant  and  Flanders,  in 
which  countries  they  are  confined  :  there  are  six 
hundred  and  twenty  resident  in  the  Beguinage. 
They  were  rich  before  the  Revolution ;  then  in 
the  general  spoliation  their  lands  were  taken 
from  them,  and  they  were  commanded  to  lay 
aside  their  distinctive  dress ;  but  this  mandate 
was  only  obeyed  in  part,  because  public  opinion 
was  strongly  in  their  favour,  and  they  were  of 
such  manifest  utility  to  all  ranks  that  very  few 
were  disposed  to  injure  them.  They  receive 
the  sick  who  come  to  them  for  succour,  and 
they  support  as  well  as  attend  them  as  long  as 
the  case  requires ;  they  go  out  also  to  nurse 

[       66       ] 


JOURNAL 

the  sick  where  their  services  are  requested. 
They  are  bound  by  no  vow,  and  M.  Devolder 
(this  was  the  name  of  our  obliging  informant) 
assured  us  with  an  air  of  becoming  pride  that 
no  instance  of  a  Beguine  leaving  the  estab- 
lishment had  ever  been  known.  The  reason  is 
obvious :  the  institution  is  in  itself  reasonable 
and  useful  as  well  as  religious ;  no  person  is 
compelled  to  enter  it,  because  there  is  no  clau- 
sure,  and  no  person  could  be  compelled  to  stay, 
and  I  suppose  their  members  are  generally, 
if  not  wholly,  filled  up  by  women  who,  when 
their  youth  is  gone  by,  seek  a  retirement,  or 
need  an  asylum  from  the  world.  M.  Devolder 
herself  entered  after  the  death  of  her  husband. 
The  property  which  a  Beguine  brings  with  her 
reverts  to  her  heirs-at-law. 

During  the  Revolution  the  Church  of  the 
Beguinage  was  sold  as  confiscated  religious 
property.  The  sale  was  a  mere  trick,  —  or  in 
English  phrase,  a  job,  to  accommodate  some 
partizan  of  the  ruling  demagogues  with  ready 
money.  Such  a  man  bought  it  for  a  nominal 
price,  and  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  weeks 
sold  it  for  three  hundred  louis  d'ors  to  M. 
[       67       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

Devolder  and  another  sister,  who  then  made  it 
over  to  the  Community. 

The  sisters  dine  in  the  Refectory  if  they 
please,  but  any  one  who  prefers  it  may  have 
dinner  sent  from  thence  to  her  own  apartments. 
We  were  taken  into  three  of  these  chambers  ; 
they  were  small  and  furnished  with  little  more 
than  necessary  comforts,  but  these  comforts 
they  had,  and  they  were  remarkably  clean.  In 
one,  a  sister  who  had  been  bedridden  many 
years  was  sitting  up  in  her  bed  knitting ;  we 
were  introduced  into  her  chamber,  because  M. 
Devolder  said  it  amused  her  to  see  visitors, 
tho'  she  could  not  converse  with  us,  for  she 
spoke  no  French.  Two  sisters  were  spinning 
in  another  chamber ;  one  of  them  was  eighty- 
three  years  of  age,  the  other  eighty-five. 

I  might  have  learnt  more,  if  my  tongue  and 
my  ears  had  not  been  the  most  anti-Gallican 
in  the  world,  and  the  Flemish-French  of  M. 
Devolder,  who  was  little  accustomed  to  speak 
in  any  other  language  than  her  own,  was  not 
always  intelligible  to  Mrs.  Vardon,  for  she  in- 
terpreted when  I  failed  to  understand,  or  to 
make  myself  understood. 

[       68       ] 


JOURNAL 

The  dress  of  the  Beguines  is  not  inconven- 
ient, but  it  is  abominably  ugly,  as  the  habits 
of  every  female  order  are,  I  believe,  without 
exception. 

Except  for  its  Beguinage,  Ghent  is  a  place 
which  I  shall  remember  with  less  pleasure  than 
Bruges.  There  is  a  greater  show  of  business, 
but  a  much  greater  appearance  of  poverty. 
The  city  is  not  so  clean,  there  is  an  odour  of 
Lisbon  or  Edinburgh  about  it,  tho'  the  filth 
is  speedily  removed,  the  gardens,  I  suppose,  re- 
quiring a  constant  supply  of  manure,  and  thus 
consuming  all  that  can  be  obtained.  It  was  so 
in  London  two  centuries  ago.  Here,  too,  the 
gutters  are  in  part  bridged  over  with  wooden 
doors  for  the  convenience  of  passing  and 
cleaning. 

The  cabinet-work  here  is  solid  and  good; 
they  stain  wood  very  beautifully.  What  is 
used  in  the  more  expensive  furniture  they  call 
Acajou,  and  say  they  get  it  from  Spain.  If  this 
be  its  proper  name,  it  must  come  from  Cuba, 
and  the  tree  has  an  additional  value,  which  I 
was  not  aware  of.  It  would  in  that  case  be 
perhaps  the  most  valuable  tree  in  the  world, 
C       59       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

considering  its  fruit,  its  nut,  its  oil,  and  its 
power  of  flourishing  upon  the  driest  soil.  But 
I  doubt  its  being  the  same  tree. 

I  should  have  been  tempted  at  Ghent  by 
some  oysters  of  excellent  physiognomy,  for 
there  is  a  physiognomy  in  oysters ;  but  the 
Landlord  told  us  that  they  had  lately  appeared 
to  possess  some  poisonous  quality ;  for  no  per- 
son had  eaten  them  without  experiencing  some 
iU  eiSects. 

Thursday,  28  Sept. 

JL  E8TERDAT  was  a  K&rmis.  I  could  not  pre- 
cisely learn  the  meaning  of  this  word ;  it  is  not 
exactly  a  fair,  but  it  is  something  of  the  same 
kind.  Women  of  the  middle  and  higher  ranks 
were  walking  the  town  in  holyday  costmne,  and 
at  night  parties  of  men  paraded  the  streets, 
singing,  to  the  annoyance  of  those  who  went  to 
bed  at  a  reasonable  hour. 

Our  wish  was  to  have  gone  from  hence  to 
Antwerp.  The  passage  of  the  Scheldt  at  Tete 
du  Flandres  was  an  obstacle.  Mrs.  Vardon 
told  us  the  boats  were  very  inconvenient,  and 
we  might  have  to  wait  on  this  side  an  indefi- 
C       60       ] 


JOURNAL 

nite  time  at  a  miserable  place.  I  was  then  for 
going  round  by  land;  but  to  this  the  coach- 
men who  were  consulted  objected.  They  said 
there  was  no  chaussee,  and  the  deeps  and  roads 
were  impassable.  An  Englishman,  in  the  pre- 
sent state  of  the  roads,  which  are  neither  too 
wet  nor  too  dry,  would  prefer  the  side  to  the 
paved  way.  However,  there  is  no  contesting 
these  points  in  a  foreign  country,  hardly  indeed 
in  one's  own.  Mr.  Vardon  therefore  hired  two 
carriages  for  forty-five  francs  to  carry  our  con- 
joined parties  (eleven  in  number,  including 
his  man  and  maid  servant),  with  their  baggage, 
to  Brussels,  a  distance  of  thirty  miles.  This 
appeared  very  reasonable  when  compared  with 
expence  of  posting  in  England  ;  nevertheless, 
we  were  afterwards  assured  that  Mr.  V.  had 
been  greatly  imposed  on. 

It  was  the  hop  harvest,  and  in  every  house, 
or  before  the  door,  whole  families  were  busy  in 
stripping  them,  making  a  cheerful  scene.  Hay- 
making also  (the  aftermath)  was  going  on,  and 
we  now  saw  haystacks,  none  of  which  we  had 
observed  before.  Flax  is  cultivated  here,  — 
for  oiL  Some  of  the  villages  have  a  green,  as 
[       61       3 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

in  England;  even  Flemish  economy  allowing 
this  little  wholesome  and  useful  remains  of 
the  common,  which  the  all-grasping  spirit  of 
enclosures  is  destroying  in  England.  Every 
house  seems  to  have  its  small  plot  of  tobacco. 
Both  the  sense  of  comfort  and  the  diffusion  of 
it  certainly  appear  to  be  much  more  general 
than  with  us.  A  blacksmith  was  eating  grapes 
from  the  vine  which  covered  his  house.  The 
roadside  trees  have  all  their  lower  branches 
lopt,  and  thus  they  admit  more  air  to  the  road 
than  finds  its  way  through  an  English  hedge. 
The  villages  which  we  passed  are  not  by  the 
roadside,  but  at  convenient  distance  from  it. 
The  country  much  of  the  same  character,  and 
still  no  cattle,  till  we  came  to  the  little  town 
of  Alost,  where  we  dined,  faring  badly  in  a 
bad  inn. 

The  name  of  this  place  occurs  in  history 
often  enough  to  make  it  interesting.  The  town- 
house  bears  this  motto,  with  the  date  in  the 
middle,  iVec  spe,  1200,  nee  metu^  but  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  the  building  is  six  hun- 
dred years  old.  The  church  is  remarkable 
for  having  an  open  gallery  over  the  great  win- 
[       62       ] 


JOURNAL 

dov;  neither  Mr.  Nash  nor  I  had  ever  seen 
anything  like  it.  The  Dender  runs  thro'  the 
town. 

There  was  a  well-contrived  basket  at  the  inn, 
with  partitions  for  small  glasses.  The  best 
thing  they  produced  was  some  small  creamy 
cheeses,  very  good  of  their  kind.  They  come 
from  Enghien ;  the  Priests,  we  were  told,  re- 
ceive them  in  exchange  for  Agnus  Deis  and 
such  things,  and  supply  the  inns  with  them. 
It  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  been  bene- 
fitted by  this  sort  of  connection  between  the 
Priest  and  the  Innkeeper.  We  should  often 
have  fared  badly  in  Portugal  if  the  Estalajor 
deiro  had  not  had  some  game  of  the  Curate's 
shooting  to  dispose  of.  As  soon  as  we  left 
Alost,  the  character  of  the  country  changed ; 
we  entered  upon  a  grazing  district,  and  saw 
plenty  of  cattle.  The  trees  also  were  much 
larger.  This  is  a  land  of  wells,  —  but  of  bad 
water,  —  at  least  since  our  landing  the  Ladies 
had  met  with  none  that  was  good,  till  in  the 
large  village  of  Assche,  between  Alost  and 
Brussels,  it  was  presented  them  in  very  long 
glasses  of  curious  form,  as  a  delicacy,  after 
[       63       ] 


JOURNAL 

some  sweet  cakes.  These  cakes,  for  which  it 
seems  Assche  is  renowned,  are  made  at  the  sign 
of  the  Negro  by  Judocus  de  Bisschop,  next 
door  to  the  Bull's  Head  Inn,  and  described 
in  his  hand-bills  by  the  deformed  appellation 
of  Suyker-koekkenSf  which  latter  word  I  think 
must  belong  to  the  language  called  by  the 
poet  Randolph  croakation^  and  never  written 
except  by  Aristophanes.  Gateaux-sucres  is 
the  French  version  thereof.  But  the  cakes 
are  good  cakes,  worthy  to  be  eaten  and  com- 
mended. 

By  the  bye,  I  can  make  nothing  of  the 
Christian  name  Judocus.  Mynheer  de  Bisschop 
here  Frenchifies  it  by  Josse,  which,  whether  it 
be  Joseph  or  Joshua,  required  a  farther  inter- 
pretation. But  Vondel's  name  is  written  some- 
times Judocus  and  sometimes  Joost,  and  Joost 
is  certainly  Justus. 

We  past,  at  some  distance  on  our  left,  the 
extensive  ruins  of  Afflighem,  one  of  the  largest 
and  finest  monasteries  in  Brabant,  and  cele- 
brated for  its  rich  library  even  in  a  country 
famous  for  such  richness.  Large  hewn  stones 
from  the  ruin  were  lying  by  the  roadside. 
[       64       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

This  destruction  was  one  of  the  acts  of  revo- 
lutionary madness.  The  driver  told  us  that 
before  its  demolition,  which  he  seemed  to  lar 
ment  with  proper  feeling,  it  had  given  employ- 
ment to  fifty  families.  We  heard  little  of  the 
revolutionary  havoc  committed  in  the  Low 
Countries ;  the  bloodier  enormities  in  France 
occasioned  them  to  be  overlooked.  But  I  have 
already  seen  enough  to  convince  me  that  great 
and  irreparable  mischief  has  been  done,  quite 
as  much  as  in  England  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  and  of  the  same  kind.  And  here 
it  has  been  pure  mischief,  without  any  accom- 
panying good. 

Upon  this  stage  we  were  annoyed  by  chil- 
dren begging  most  importunately  by  the  way- 
side, wherever  there  was  what  the  Netherland- 
ers  call  a  montagne.  They  sung  in  a  monotonous 
strain  these  words,  half  French,  half  English, 
"  Vive  I'Angleterre !  Dis  for  Napoleon', "  and 
then  the  finger  was  significantly  passed  across 
the  throat.  I  suspect  this  has  come  into  use 
since  the  battle.  Some  whistled  the  tune,  ac- 
companying it  with  the  same  gesture.  Others 
tumbled  like  vagabonds  of  a  like  description 
C       65       ] 


J  O  U   R  N  A  li 

in  England,  and  others  hopt  along  in  imitation 
of  frogs. 

It  was  dusk  before  we  reached  Brussels ;  this 
was  unlucky,  as  it  prevented  us  from  seeing 
the  approach.  Our  passports  were  taken  at 
the  gates ;  in  so  courteous  a  manner,  that  it 
would  have  reconciled  us  to  a  measure  of  police 
more  troublesome  and  less  reasonable.  The 
Emperor  Alexander  was  here,  and  the  city 
illuminated  in  consequence.  We  drove  to  the 
Hotel  de  Flandres,  in  the  Place  de  Roi,  ad- 
joining the  Park. 

Friday y  29  Sept. 

OuE  first  business  was  at  the  Police  Office, 
where  the  people  were  less  courteous  than 
they  had  been  at  any  former  place,  in  propor- 
tion as  they  have  more  business;  he  must 
be  unreasonable  who  complains  of  short  and 
pithy  manners,  necessarily  arising  from  this 
cause.  Here  I  ascertained  that  my  brother 
and  his  party  had  gone  to  Antwerp  on  their 
way  home  instead  of  proceeding  to  Spa,  as 
they  had  talked  of  doing.  All  hope  of  falling 
in  with  them  was  therefore  at  an  end.  We 
[       66       3 


JOURNAL 

fairly  joined  company,  therefore,  with  the  fel- 
low-travellers whom  chance  had  given  us  and 
whom  choice  approved;  and  it  was  settled 
that  we  should  go  on  from  Waterloo  to  Namur, 
Spa,  and  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  return  to  Brus- 
sels by  way  of  Maestricht  and  Louvain. 

I  had  read  in  the  Brussels  Gtiide  or  Petit 
Necessaire  that  Anderlecht  butter  or  pistolets 
made  the  breakfasts  in  that  city  excellent. 
Upon  this  I  asked  the  waiter  what  these  pis- 
tols were,  and  he  replied  by  pointing  with  a 
smile  to  some  little  long  rolls  upon  the  break- 
fast-table. We  had  also  the  Anderlecht  but- 
ter, which  is  not  better  than  what  we  have 
found  along  the  whole  way,  because  the  butter 
everywhere  is  as  good  as  it  can  be.  I  had 
been  told  that  we  should  meet  with  good  coffee 
on  the  Continent ;  it  is  about  as  good  as  you 
usually  find  it  in  England,  that  is  to  say, 
detestable  to  a  Lisbonian's  palate,  more  like 
the  rinsings  of  the  pot  than  what  he  has  been 
accustomed  to.  Tea  evidently  is  not  used  in 
these  countries.  We  had  been  advised  to  take 
some  with  us,  but  as  cream  is  never  to  be  had, 
it  proved  of  little  use. 

[       67       ] 


JOURNAL 

We  staid  at  Brussels  four  days;  this  was 
longer  than  we  intended  or  desired,  but  be- 
cause the  Emperor  and  the  Prussian  Prince 
were  there,  carriages  were  not  to  be  procured. 
I  had  thus  ample  time  to  look  after  books  and 
see  what  was  to  be  seen. 

Brussels  has  been  too  much  modernised,  too 
much  Frenchified  in  all  respects.  As  a  speci- 
men of  the  leprous  filthiness  with  which  the 
French  have  infected  these  countries,  I  saw 
some  toys  in  a  shop  window,  representing  men 
with  their  loins  ungirt,  in  the  attitude  of  the 
Deus  CacaturienSj  each  with  a  piece  of  yel- 
low metal,  like  a  sham  coin,  inserted  behind. 
The  persons  who  exhibit  such  things  as  these 
for  sale  deserve  the  pillory,  or  the  whipping- 
post,—  the  very  mob  in  England  would  not 
tolerate  them.  And  where  these  are  exposed, 
it  may  easily  be  guessed  what  sort  of  ware  is 
to  be  found  within.  Indeed,  I  am  told  that 
such  damnable  abominations  as  were  manufac- 
tured by  the  French  prisoners  during  the  war 
are  always  upon  sale  here.  The  Flemings  and 
Brabanters  have  caught  this  sort  of  corrup- 
tion. It  does  not  belong  to  their  national  char- 
C       68       ] 


JOURNAL 

acter,  which  must  essentially  be  the  same  as  that 
of  the  Dutch.  What  difference  there  is  can 
only  be  such  as  their  different  religions  have 
induced,  and  it  would  be  a  very  interesting  en- 
quiry to  trace  this,  for  one  who  was  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  the  respective  countries. 

Of  course  I  enquired  for  the  Manneke,  as 
the  most  notorious,  if  not  the  most  famous 
piece  of  sculpture  of  modem  times,  and  one 
which  the  populace  value  as  if  it  were  the 
Palladium  of  Brussels.  The  execution  is  so 
admirable  that  one  can  hardly  forgive  the 
artist  for  the  design,  and  yet  the  figure  is  far 
too  infantine  and  innocent  to  be  deemed  offen- 
sive. It  might  probably  provoke  the  cogni- 
zance of  a  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice  ; 
but  for  myself,  certainly  I  should  not  indict 
it  as  contra  honos  mores.  I  remember  OUvier 
de  la  Marche  speaks  of  such  an  image  at  an 
entertainment  given  by  Philip  the  Good :  it 
made  rose-water.  The  best  manners,  there- 
fore, in  that  age  were  not  offended  by  it.  I 
do  not  know  when  the  Manneke  was  made. 
The  sculptor  may  have  had  this  very  descrip- 
tion of  the  Chroniclers  in  mind,  or,  which  is 
[       69       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

still  more  likely,  may  have  intended  a  good- 
natured  satire  upon  the  absurd  taste  so  com- 
monly displayed  in  fountains,  of  which  Brus- 
sels abounds  in  examples.  For  instance,  here 
is  a  half-length  human  figure,  with  the  water 
flowing  from  his  mouth ;  and  others  where  the 
figure  is  female,  and  it  spouts  from  both 
breasts.  The  Manneke  may  be  considered  as 
a  fair  burlesque  of  such  preposterous  devices. 

Madrid  is  the  city  for  handsome  foimtains. 
The  only  fine  one  here  is  in  the  Place  de 
Sablon.  And  the  fijiest  monuments  are  in  the 
Church  de  Sablon. 

Richard  Carbonell,  the  poor  feUow  who  was 
wounded  at  Waterloo,  and  for  whom  I  brought 
a  letter  from  his  parents  at  Keswick,  died  on 
the  14th  of  August.  In  going  to  the  hospital 
to  enquire  for  him,  I  saw  some  waggons  full  of 
wounded  men,  who  had  been  taken  out  for 
air,  —  a  most  melancholy  sight.  Some  were 
lying  upon  straw,  pale,  emaciated,  and  with 
the  utmost  languor  and  listlessness  in  their 
appearance  ;  others  in  a  rapid  state  of  conva- 
lescence, erect  and  seeming  to  have  no  feeling 
or  concern  for  their  companions.  This  I  par- 
[       70       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  Ii 

ticularly  noticed  in  a  load  of  Frenchmen  whom 
I  followed  for  some  time.  They  were  in  white 
flannel  dresses,  and  it  was  gratifying  to  see 
(however  ill  this  accursed  race  deserve  it ! ) 
that  they  were  as  well  taken  care  of  as  if  they 
had  been  our  own  countrymen.  The  manage- 
ment of  the  hospital  appeared  to  be  excellent. 
My  errand  there  was  soon  accomplished  :  the 
books  were  turned  to  and  my  enquiry  answered 
in  less  time  than  it  has  taken  me  to  describe 
what  I  saw  there.  I  have  no  recollection  of 
the  poor  fellow  himself,  but  it  would  have 
gratified  me  if  I  could  have  sent  home  a  dif- 
ferent account  to  his  parents.  I  had  never 
before  seen  the  real  face  of  war  so  closely; 
and  God  knows  I  a  deplorable  sight  it  is. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Miller  of  the  Inniskillen 
Dragoons  is  in  our  hotel,  lying  in  his  bed, 
miserably  wounded.  His  thigh  was  broken  by 
a  grape-shot,  and  splinters  and  the  rags  which 
were  driven  into  the  flesh  prevent  the  woimd 
from  healing.  By  desire  of  his  servant,  who 
seems  most  faithfully  attached  to  his  master, 
we  visited  him.  He  is  a  remarkably  fine-look- 
ing man,  and  bears  up  with  wonderful  spirit ; 
[       71       3 


JOURNAL 

and  in  this  he  has  his  best  chance ;  for  the 
surgeon  considers  his  recovery  as  extremely 
difficult.  I  saw  the  ball  which  had  been  ex- 
tracted ;  it  was  not  smaller  than  a  walnut, 
and  very  ragged,  as  if  the  mould  in  which  it 
was  cast  had  not  been  fairly  closed.  He  was 
wounded  near  La  Haye  Sainte  towards  the 
close  of  the  action,  and  at  a  time,  he  says,  when 
he  thought  the  day  was  going  ill  with  the  Eng- 
lish. But  he  had  been  hurt  before  he  was  thus 
disabled.  Leading  on  his  men  to  charge  a  solid 
square,  he  thought  they  appeared  to  funk,  and 
was  afraid  they  might  turn  back ;  upon  which 
he  pushed  on  a  little  too  far  before  them,  for 
an  example,  and  was  thrown  from  his  horse 
with  two  bayonet  wounds.  These,  however, 
were  slight,  and  when  the  men  did  their  duty 
in  saving  him,  he  had  some  sticking-plaister, 
he  said,  put  on,  and  returned  to  the  field.  The 
question  now  is  whether  nature  can  hold  out 
till  the  wound  suppurates  and  expels  all  the 
extraneous  substances  which  now  prevent  its 
healing.  ^ 

*  Mrs.  Vardon  met  him  at  Bmges,  twelve  months  after- 
wards, on  his  way  to  England,  only  just  then  able  to  bear 

[        72        ] 


JOURNAL 

The  Great  Square  is  the  finest  thing  of  its 
kind  I  have  yet  seen.  The  Stadthouse,  which 
forms  one  side,  is  truly  a  magnificent  building, 
but  the  roof,  which  rises  very  high,  with  a  long, 
straight,  unrelieved  outline  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  unomamented  garret  windows,  does  not 
accord  with  the  richness  of  the  structure  in  all 
other  parts.  These  Town-houses  are  indeed 
splendid  edifices,  and  show  what  the  spirit  and 
wealth  of  these  provinces  must  have  been  in  their 
better  days.  To  complain  that  there  is  nothing 
within  which  corresponds  with  the  magnificence 
of  their  exterior  would  be  finding  fault  with 
them  for  being  what  they  are.  It  is  only  in  ec- 
clesiastical buildings  that  the  impression  which 
the  external  grandeur  makes  upon  the  mind 
can  be  heightened  when  we  enter.  Westminster 
Hall  indeed  is  an  exception.  At  the  back  of 
tJie  building  there  is  a  row  of  gigantic  gilt 
arms  projecting  from  the  wall,  each  holding 
what,  for  want  of  a  more  appropriate  word,  I 
must  call  a  candlestick,  for  a  torch.  The  effect 
would  be  very  grand  if  the  arm  did  not,  in 

the  removal  and  luing  cratches,  but  in  a  fair  way  of  re- 
covery. 

[       73       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

the  worst  imaginable  taste,  come  out  of  the 
mouth  of  a  huge  face  ! 

Not  far  from  hence,  according  to  the  direc- 
tion given  me  by  the  Librarian  at  Ghent,  I 
found  Verbeyst  the  bookseller,  a  very  singular 
and  striking  man.  A  more  thorough  sloven 
I  never  saw,  and  seldom  or  never  a  man  with 
a  better  and  finer  countenance.  Frequent  as 
were  my  visits  to  him,  I  never  happened  to 
see  him  entirely  drest ;  sometimes  he  was  with- 
out neckcloth,  sometimes  without  stockings. 
His  house,  from  the  ground  floor  to  the  garret, 
is  full  of  books,  beyond  all  comparison  the 
largest  collection  of  foreign  works  I  ever  saw 
exposed  to  sale,  a  sight  which  made  me  wish 
that  I  had  plenty  of  money  at  command.  Here 
was  what  had  been  saved  from  the  wreck  of 
many  a  convent  library,  but  what  a  destruction 
has  been  made !  Verbeyst,  who  loves  books  as 
dearly  as  I  do,  spoke  of  it  with  proper  feeling. 
They  had  been  brought  to  him  in  such  quanti- 
ties that,  not  having  where  to  stow  them,  after 
filling  his  own  house  and  a  church  also,  he  had 
been  obliged  to  sell  more  than  an  hundred  thou- 
sand weight  for  waste  paper,  for  which  use  he 
C        74        ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  Ij 

once  sent  ofE  five  and  twenty  waggon-loads  at 
one  time !  He  related  this  with  as  much  vex- 
ation as  it  gave  me  to  hear  it,  for  Verbeyst 
is  no  ordinary  bookseller ;  he  has  a  thorough 
love  of  books,  and  told  me  would  not  exchange 
the  pleasure  which  he  finds  in  reading  for  any 
advantages  of  wealth  or  station.  I  dealt  with 
him  largely,  considering  my  slender  means. 
Artzema's  great  work,  with  the  continuation, 
was  among  my  purchases,  —  eleven  folios,  a 
huge  mass  of  materials  quite  indispensable  for 
any  one  who  would  write  upon  the  history  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Here,  too,  I  found 
the  Jesuit  Pierre  du  Jarvie's  history  of  the 
progress  of  Christianity  in  the  Portuguese 
conquests,  the  original  French,  in  three  small 
quartos.  I  had  long  been  in  search  of  this 
book,  which  is  very  scarce,  and  very  important 
to  my  pursuits,  as  supplying  so  far  as  it  goes, 
better  than  any  other  work,  the  want  of  a  series 
of  the  Annual  Relations. 

I  went  to  see  the  French  cannon  which  had 

been  taken  at  Waterloo.   They  were  in  an  open 

place  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  under  the  care 

of  a  single  centinel,  who  was  pacing  quietly  be- 

[       76       ] 


JOURNAL 

side  them ;  for  they  had  now  ceased  to  be  an 
object  of  public  curiosity,  and  few  travellers 
thought  of  enquiring  for  them,  or  took  the  trou- 
ble to  search  them  out.  There  were  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-three  pieces,  all  of  brass,  some 
bearing  the  mark  of  the  Republic,  others  of 
Louis,  others  of  Buonaparte.  Many  had  a 
name  stamped  on  them,  such  as  Le  Cousen^ 
Le  Furet.  I  remember  in  my  early  boyhood  a 
Bristol  privateer  of  some  celebrity  during  the 
American  War,  which  in  a  like  spirit  was 
called  the  Hornet.  Proceeding  from  this  place 
to  the  canal,  we  then  ascended  the  ramparts 
and  walked  upon  them  half  round  the  city,  and 
thus  obtained  a  good  prospect  of  the  whole. 

Our  quarters  were  at  the  Hotel  de  Flandres 
in  the  Place  de  Roi,  a  handsome  square  on  the 
top  of  the  hill,  very  handsome  indeed  of  its 
kind,  but  it  is  such  a  square  as  might  as  well 
be  in  London,  or  Paris,  or  BerHn.  The  build- 
ings have  nothing  about  them  to  characterise 
their  country,  and  in  this  respect,  therefore, 
they  ill  supply  the  place  of  the  Palace  which 
was  burnt  there  in  1731.  The  Hotel  is  as  good 
as  could  be  desired,  and  of  course  sufficiently 
[        76        ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

expensive.  Our  sitting-room  was  on  the  lowest 
floor,  unluckily  ;  not  so  much  because  this  put 
us  to  the  trouble  of  ascending  seventy-two  stairs 
to  the  bedroom,  as  because  it  exposed  us  to  the 
street,  and  we  were  beset  in  consequence  by  a 
class  of  persons  quite  as  importunate  as  beg- 
gars, and  whom  there  are  stronger  reasons  for 
discouraging.  While  we  were  at  breakfast, 
nosegays  of  the  sweetest  flowers,  nicely  ax- 
ranged  for  a  Lady's  dress,  were  thrown  in  at 
the  window.  After  dinner  we  were  serenaded 
by  musicians  and  female  singers,  who  were  bet- 
ter performers  than  are  found  in  our  provincial 
theatres.  One  day  an  itinerant  juggler  set  up 
his  portable  table  in  front  of  our  apartment, 
and  began  to  exhibit  his  tricks  for  our  amuse- 
ment and  that  of  the  crowd,  but  he  was  by  no 
means  expert  in  his  art. 

All  this  is  rather  French  than  Flemish,  and 
indeed  this  is  in  very  many  respects  a  Frenchi- 
fied city.  The  modern  part  is  said  to  resemble 
Paris,  and  the  Park  is  altogether  French,  with 
its  straight  walks  and  statues  and  fountains, 
and  shade  enough  to  afford  a  convenient  cover 
for  a  profligate  people.  The  town  is  overrun 
[        77       ] 


JOURNAL. 

with  splendid  carriages ;  and  these,  as  was  no- 
toriously the  case  in  France,  are  driven  with- 
out caution  or  remorse,  as  if  the  coachman 
wished  to  terrify  or  even  to  run  over  the  foot- 
passengers,  a  practice  the  more  dangerous 
because  the  streets  are  not  flagged.  Near  the 
entrance  of  the  public  library  we  stept  aside 
to  look  at  some  statues,  which  had  been 
used  at  some  late  spectacle  (probably  the  in- 
auguration) and  then  laid  by.  The  drapery 
appeared  so  remarkably  good  that  it  induced 
us  to  examine  them,  and  it  was  not  tiU  we  saw 
one  comer  of  a  robe  move  with  the  wind  as 
we  approached  that  we  discovered  them  to  be 
actually  drest  in  coarse  linen,  which  had  after- 
wards been  white-limed  and  thus  stiffened  to 
resemble  stone.  This  was  truly  French,  — 
the  shift  and  the  cleverness,  the  imposing  ap- 
pearance, and  the  intrinsic,  disgusting  mean- 
ness. 

The  Cathedral  stands  weU,  but  none  of  the 
Cathedrals  which  I  have  seen  in  these  coun- 
tries are  to  be  compared  with  our  own  for 
their  external  beauty,  nor  even  with  some  of 
the  fine  parochial  churches  in  Lincohishire  and 
[       78       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

in  the  west  of  England.  The  pulpit  here  is 
the  most  beautiful  I  ever  saw ;  it  is  the  work 
of  Henry  Verbouggen  of  Antwerp,  who  made 
it  in  1699  for  the  Jesuits'  Church  at  Louvain, 
and  on  the  suppression  of  that  order  the  Em- 
perors presented  it  to  this  Cathedral.  This  was 
probably  done  in  honour  of  St.  Gudule ;  but  it 
is  surely  an  act  of  great  injustice  thus  to  rob 
one  city  of  one  of  its  noblest  ornaments  to 
enrich  another. 

While  we  were  at  Brussels,  the  Emperor 
Alexander  and  the  Prussian  Princes  arrived, 
so  that  Edith  May  saw  a  live  Emperor.  Hav- 
ing letters  to  write  and  more  than  enough  to 
employ  me,  I  did  not  join  the  crowd  which  had 
collected  to  behold  these  great  personages,  but 
contented  myself  with  just  going  into  the  Park 
to  look  at  the  illuminations  at  the  Palace.  On 
the  following  night  the  Alle  Verte  was  illumi- 
nated, and  three  large  vessels  also,  which  pro- 
duced a  striking  effect  as  they  moved  upon  the 
canal. 

"We  went  to  see  M.  De  Burtin's  pictures,  a 
choice  and  celebrated  collection,  but  nothing 
in  his  possession  is  half  so  extraordinary  as 
[       79       ] 


JOURNAL 

himself.  The  Queen  and  the  Prussian  Princes 
had  been  just  before  us,  so  that  he  was  in  half 
dress,  having  on  an  embroidered  white  sattin 
waistcoat  over  which  he  had  a  magnificent 
flowered  dressing-gown.  Have  you  seen  my 
Book  ?  was  his  first  question,  —  a  critical  cata- 
logue of  his  own  collection,  with  a  prelimi- 
nary treatise  upon  painting,  in  two  large  octavo 
volumes,  which  he,  albeit  S.  C.  R.  M.^  a  Consil. 
Gen.  Belg.,  etc.,  etc.,  sells  himself  to  whoever 
pleases  to  buy  it.  We  humbly  acknowledged 
that  we  had  not.  "  What !  "  he  exclaimed, "  not 
seen  it  ?  "  and  then  he  told  us  what  an  excellent 
book  it  was,  and  how  much  we  had  to  leam, 
and  what  a  pleasure  we  had  to  come,  for  it 
was  as  delightful  as  it  was  instructive.  It  was 
as  entertaining  as  a  novel,  he  assured  us ;  it 
taught  everything  concerning  pictures  which 
could  be  known ;  it  was  such  a  book  that  it 
could  be  read  a  thousand  years  hence  with 
enthusiasm  ;  it  was  already  famous  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge ;  the  language  was  so  pure 
that  French  masters  preferred  it  to  any  other 
work  for  their  pupils.  An  English  lady  who 
never  had  handled  a  brush  till  she  read  that 
£       80       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

book  leamt  to  paint  by  studying  it,  came  to 
Brussels  from  a  feeling  of  gratitude  to  thank 
him,  and  painted  his  portrait,  which  he  accord- 
ingly showed  us,  in  a  night-cap  and  the  iden- 
tical rohe  de  chambre  wherein  he  stood  be- 
fore us. 

It  was  well  that  I  had  prudence  enough  to 
caution  my  companions  against  ever  saying 
anything  in  English  which  they  would  not  like 
the  persons  present  to  understand.  Sorely,  as 
it  proved,  should  we  have  been  ashamed  if 
this  man's  extraordinary  figure,  more  extraor- 
dinary countenance  (he  was  truly  an  ill-fa- 
voured rogue),  and  most  extraordinary  conver- 
sation had  tempted  us  to  any  such  remarks  as 
every  one  was  strongly  inclined  to  make,  for 
the  old  fox,  who  had  pretended  not  to  under- 
stand English,  began  to  speak  it  just  as  we 
were  going  away.  As  it  was,  we  left  him  in 
good  humour,  for  both  Nash  and  I  bought  his 
book,  and  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  part 
of  the  adventure  is  that  really  the  book  is  a 
very  good  one,  probably  the  best  which  has 
been  written  of  its  kind. 

I  pretend  to  no  knowledge  of  pictures.  But 
[       81       ] 


JOURNAL 

I  will  venture  to  say  that  what  he  shows  as 
Michel  Angelo's  was  never  painted  by  that 
master.  He  has  prefixed  an  engraving  of  it  to 
his  second  volume. 

While  we  were  at  the  Hotel,  an  English 
family  arrived  there,  on  their  return  from 
Italy.  According  to  the  account  which  their 
servants  spread,  robbers  are  so  numerous  in 
that  country  that  they  had  waited  at  one  place 
till  fourteen  carriages  were  collected ;  even 
this  caravan  was  stopt ;  but  the  banditti  hesi- 
tated about  attacking  them ;  a  parley  ensued, 
which  ended  in  the  travellers  hiring  these 
robbers  to  escort  them  the  rest  of  the  stage, 
by  which  means  they  were  protected  from  a 
second  attack. 

Mr.  Vardon  is  acquainted  with  a  very  intel- 
ligent German  merchant  in  this  city,  a  native 
of  the  Duchy  of  Berg,  Engelbert  Werth  by 
name.  He  tells  us  that  the  Prussian  Command- 
ant at  Paris  has  been  murdered,  that  the 
destruction  of  Paris  must  be  expected  as  an 
inevitable  consequence,  that  Alexander  upon 
this  intelligence  had  set  off  hastily  for  France, 
and  that  this  was  the  reason  why  he  had  not 
[       82       3 


J  O  U  B  X  A  L 

been  at  the  theatre  on  the  preceding  evening, 
according  to  the  notice  which  had  been  given 
in  the  bills.  It  had  been  said  in  the  morn- 
ing that  the  manager  had  been  sent  to  prison 
for  having  deceived  the  public  by  announcing 
his  intended  presence,  not  being  authorized  so 
to  do.  This,  however,  woidd  have  implied  a 
degree  of  despotism  which  certainly  does  not 
exist  in  Belgium.  As  for  the  news,  I  have 
lived  long  enough  in  a  country  where  the  news- 
papers are  of  no  value  to  know  how  little 
credit  is  due  to  the  reports  which  spring  up 
wherever  authentic  intelligence  is  wanting. 
The  slightest  enquiry  sufficed  to  show  that 
this  formidable  tale  rested  on  no  authority, 
and  the  old  saying  about  the  month  of  March 
might  be  applied  to  it :  it  came  in  like  a  Lion 
and  went  out  like  a  Lamb. 

Mr.  Werth  drew  a  plan  of  the  battle  which  he 
explained  with  remarkable  clearness,  and  which 
he  has  promised  to  draw  out  fairly,  and  send 
after  me  to  Spa.  Yet  I  doubt  the  accuracy  of 
his  statement  in  one  point,  and  upon  another 
there  is  indubitable  proof  that  he  is  wrong. 
He  says  that  the  English  were  driven  from 
C       83       ] 


JOURNAL 

Hougomont,  —  certainly  they  were  not ;  great 
part  of  the  buildings  were  destroyed,  but  the 
French  never  could  effect  an  entrance.  He 
says  that  Buonaparte  lost  the  battle  by  send- 
ing Vandamme  with  twenty-two  thousand  men 
against  Waure  in  the  evening,  when  he  con- 
sidered the  field  as  decisively  his  own,  and  that 
Bulow  took  advantage  of  this  fatal  error. 
Now,  unless  I  am  grieviously  mistaken,  Van- 
damme was  despatched  under  Grouchy  the 
preceding  day.  A  useful  lesson  this,  if  I  had 
needed  one,  to  teach  me  with  what  caution  the 
hearsay  relations  even  of  intelligent  men  are 
to  be  received.  He  was  upon  the  field  five 
days  after  the  action,  with  Henry  Bedford's 
friend,  Hercules  Sharp.  They  found  the  house 
at  Papelot  full  of  wounded  Prussians,  who  had 
literally  been  forgotten.  Falling  in  with  a 
party  of  Prussian  soldiers,  they  stated  the  fact 
and  intreated  them  to  go  and  assist  their  coun- 
trymen ;  the  answer  was  that  this  was  the  for- 
tune of  war ;  they  had  received  orders  whither 
to  march,  and  could  not  deviate  from  them. 
This  indeed  was  true;  nor  was  there  any 
assistance  which  it  was  in  their  power  to  have 
C        84        ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

afforded.  Mr.  Werth  and  his  companion  then 
applied  to  the  Mayor  of  some  neighbouring 
place ;  but  he  had  already  more  wounded 
than  he  could  find  room  to  lodge,  or  persons 
to  attend. 

Tuesday,  3  Oct. 

AjEFT  Brussels  after  an  early  breakfast  and 
went  thro'  the  Forest  of  Soigny  to  Waterloo. 
The  forest  is  for  the  most  part  a  close  planta- 
tion, approaching  so  close  to  the  road  as  to 
shade  it  and  prevent  it  from  drying.  There 
are  wells  in  all  the  villages,  and  almost  at 
every  house ;  they  are  generally  under  a  shed, 
perfectly  secured  against  any  accident  from 
carelessness,  and  with  a  wheel  over  which  the 
rope  passes.  The  church  at  Waterloo  is  a 
singular  and  not  unhandsome  building,  con- 
sidering its  size  and  materials,  with  a  dome. 
It  is  some  distance  from  thence  thro'  the 
Forest  to  the  scene  of  action,  which  com- 
mences at  Mont  St.  Jean.  Wo  neglected  to 
mark  the  distance,  and  now  differ  about  it, 
some  saying  scarcely  one  mile,  others  extend- 
ing it  to  three,  to  which  latter  opinion  I  more 
[        86        ] 


JOURNAL 

nearly  incline,  but  the  difference  shows  how 
little  a  vague  estimate  is  to  be  trusted.  Upon 
leaving  the  forest  you  come  upon  an  open 
country,  and  at  the  village  of  Mont  St.  Jean 
(where  you  may  look  in  vain  for  anything  like 
a  moimt)  we  saw  the  first  direct  mark  of  the 
battle,  —  a  large  curbstone  at  a  barn  door, 
cracked  and  splintered  by  a  cannon-ball.  Here 
we  were  surrounded  by  men  in  their  blue 
frocks  and  caps,  contending  who  should  be 
our  guide.  Luckily,  the  one  was  successful 
whom  I  should  have  selected  for  his  striking 
countenance  and  manner  ;  and  a  better  choice 
could  not  have  been  made.  He  led  us  along 
the  road  toward  La  Haye  Sainte.  The  enemy 
never  could  pass  a  cross-road  leading  from 
Wavre  to  Braine  le  lend,  which  crosses  the 
chaussee  between  Mont  St.  Jean  and  La  Haye 
Sainte.  Here  the  Highlanders  were  posted. 
*'  O  my  God !  "  the  man  exclaimed,  "  how  well 
they  fought,  —  those  Scotchmen,  —  those  men 
without  breeches !  how  they  fought !  If  they 
had  not  fought  so  well,  Brussels  and  Waterloo 
would  have  been  taken  and  Mont  St.  Jean 
burnt !  "  This  was  always  the  btirthen  of  his 
C       86       ] 


JOURNAL 

song.  Mont  St.  Jean  was  the  dwelling-place, 
and  his  fate  as  well  as  that  of  Europe  de- 
pended upon  the  issue  of  the  battle. 

While  we  were  surveying  this  ground, — 
where  the  Scotch  and  the  Inniskillens  may 
almost  be  said  to  have  decided  the  fate  of  the 
day, — two  officers,  not  in  regimentals,  came  up. 
I  think  they  were  Prussians.  Koster  supposed 
them  to  be  English.  They  asked  the  guide  in 
French  where  the  Emperor  was  during  the 
battle,  but  he,  in  his  plain,  honest  sense  of  right 
and  wrong,  did  not  understand  that  they 
meant  Buonaparte  by  that  appellation,  till 
they  explained.  "When  he  pointed  to  the  wood 
and  said :  "  There  it  was  that  the  fifteen  thou- 
sand Prussians  came  out,"  one  of  them  an- 
swered in  the  most  supercilious  manner  imagi- 
nable, "  Trente-deux,  s'il  vous  plait !  "  moving 
his  moustachios  to  a  sardonic  smile. 

The  farmhouse  at  La  Haye  Sainte  is  well 
represented  in  the  panoramic  print.  The  house 
here  and  the  stables  had  been  full  of  wounded 
and  the  yard  full  of  dead.  It  suffered  some- 
thing, but  not  much,  and  having  changed  its 
tenant  since  the  battle,  the  holes  in  the  wall 
[       87       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

have  been  repaired.  La  Belle  Alliance  is  on 
the  chaussee,  in  a  line  with  this  house,  but  we 
left  the  road  here,  and  turning  to  the  right, 
crost  the  fields  to  Hougomont. 

Let  me  endeavour  to  describe  the  scene.  It 
is  a  wide,  open  country,  in  which  the  most  con- 
spicuous object  is  the  Church  of  Braine  le 
leud.  Standing  on  the  chaussee  by  Mont  St. 
Jean  and  looking  to  the  field  of  battle,  the 
forest  is  behind  you  ;  Papelot  and  Frechemont 
on  its  skirts  to  the  left ;  La  Haye  Sainte,  and 
farther  on  La  Belle  Alliance,  both  straight 
forward,  on  the  high-road;  the  Observatory 
to  the  right  at  a  greater  distance,  upon  what 
we  are  told  is  the  highest  ground  in  the  Low 
Countries;  Hougomont  farther  to  the  right, 
but  less  remote ;  Braine  le  leud  more  to  the 
right  still,  and  more  distant,  and  thus  looking 
round  to  the  Forest  of  Soigny  you  compleat  the 
circle.  The  ground  would  not  appear  strong 
to  a  person  ignorant  of  the  art  of  war.  But 
there  are  dips  and  swells  like  those  on  our 
South  Downs  and  Wiltshire  hills  (tho'  the 
inequality  is  considerably  less),  which  in  wet 
weather  and  in  this  heavy  soil  would  give  great 
I      88       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

advantage  to  the  troops  defending  the  ascent. 
I  suppose  Lord  Wellmgton  looked  to  two  ad- 
vantages: the  fair  open  field  of  battle,  and 
the  security  which  the  forest  afforded  his  rear. 

The  observatory  is  still  upon  the  ground, 
and  the  people  here  all  agree  in  saying  it  was 
erected  by  the  English. 

Hougomont  was  a  gentleman's  residence, 
and  a  fine  one,  with  chapel,  pigeon-house, 
outbuildings,  extensive  gardens,  orchard,  and 
grove.  This  is  the  only  picturesque  point  in 
the  whole  field,  and  it  is  highly  so,  —  a  sort 
of  oasis  or  wood-island,  having  that  beauty 
which  a  well-planted  spot  possesses  in  a  bare 
and  open  country.  There  are  avenues  and  cov- 
ered walks  in  the  garden ;  at  the  end  of  that 
which  faces  the  middle  of  the  terrace  before 
the  house  (where  the  ascent  is  by  a  few  steps), 
a  vile  picture  is  placed  upon  a  little  eminence, 
representing  another  avenue,  with  a  summer- 
house  at  the  end.  In  a  country  which  abounds 
with  fine  pictures,  such  an  instance  of  abom- 
inable taste  was  not  to  have  been  looked  for. 

Lord  Wellington  was  here  on  the  17th, 
asking  the  names  of  all  the  places  round,  the 
[       89       ]. 


JOURNAL 

distances,  etc.  When  he  went  away,  he  said 
to  the  Gardener  that  if  he  did  not  occupy  this 
point  the  next  day,  the  French  would.  In 
consequence  of  what  Mr.  Werth  had  said,  I 
asked  the  Gardener  if  the  French  had  at  any 
time  obtained  possession  of  the  place,  and  he 
assured  me  that  they  had  not. 

The  garden  wall,  toward  the  grove,  where 
the  hottest  attack  was  made,  is  substantially 
built  of  brick,  nine  feet  high,  and  supported 
with  buttresses.  Our  men  made  holes  in  it  for 
musketry ;  they  broke  the  buttresses  halfway 
down,  and  then  laid  planks  along  the  trim- 
cated  tops,  so  as  to  form  a  rampart,  or  rather 
platform ;  and  when  any  of  the  French  who 
attempted  to  scale  the  wall  reached  the  top, 
they  bayonetted  them  from  below.  On  the 
skirts  of  the  grove,  a  little  way  from  the 
entrance  of  the  house,  the  bodies  of  six  hun- 
dred French  had  been  burnt,  and  the  remains 
buried.  A  hole  like  a  rabbit's  burrow  had 
been  made  in  this  heap ;  and  the  guide  raked 
it  with  a  stick,  to  prove  the  truth  of  his 
story,  tho '  no  one  would  have  disputed  it.  He 
scraped  out  some  ashes  and  the  calcined  bone 
E       90       ] 


JOURNAL 

of  a  finger  before  we  could  make  him  desist ; 
and  a  perceptible  smell  of  ammonia  came  from 
the  burnt  animal  remains  which  he  disturbed. 
We  had  seen  the  place  by  La  Haye  Sainte 
(near  a  tree)  where  General  Picton  fell.  Here 
the  spot  was  pointed  out  where  Major  Howard 
was  knied ;  and  in  the  garden  the  place  where 
an  officer,  by  name  Crawford  (I  think),  had 
been  buried,  till  his  father  came  from  Ireland 
and  removed  the  body.  In  one  place  the  wall 
of  the  house  for  about  five  feet  in  a  perpen- 
dicular line  was  covered  with  blood;  some 
poor  fellow  must  have  been  knocked  to  pieces 
against  it  by  a  cannon-ball. 

A  painter  might  have  found  many  pleasing 
subjects  here  before  the  battle ;  the  ruins  now 
would  afford  him  some  of  a  very  different 
kind.  Beneath  these  ruins,  our  wounded,  who 
had  been  carried  into  the  house,  were  at  once 
crushed  and  buried.  Part  of  the  house  still 
remains  habitable,  and  to  this  the  Gardener's 
wife  and  children  have  returned.  The  Chapel 
was  only  half  ruined.  There  is  a  crucifix  in 
it,  large  as  life,  which  escaped  any  injury  from 
the  shot,  but  had  been  mutilated  by  some  of 
t       91       ] 


JOURNAL 

our  men.  When  I  expressed  my  regret  at 
this,  the  Gardener  said  it  was  ill  done,  but  he 
said  it  mildly,  and  without  any  apparent  feel- 
ing of  anger  or  indignation.  Perhaps  the 
British  character  never  was  so  highly  esteemed 
in  any  part  of  the  world  as  it  is  at  this  time 
in  this  country.  I  have  heard  no  other  in- 
stance of  misconduct  in  our  troops,  tho'  I  made 
the  enquiry;  and  the  people  seem  as  much 
conciliated  by  their  good  discipline  and  inof- 
fensive deportment  as  they  are  astonished  and 
awed  by  their  courage.  The  pigeon-house 
escaped  all  injury ;  as  soon  as  the  action  be- 
gan, the  pigeons  took  flight,  —  to  the  forest, 
no  doubt ;  and  two  or  three  days  afterwards, 
when  they  saw  that  the  mischief  was  over,  they 
came  back  again. 

The  Prince  of  Orange  has  promised  to  re- 
pair all  the  damage  which  has  been  done  here. 
The  present  owner  of  Hougomont  is  a  noble- 
man, who  resides  far  off,  and  wishes  to  sell 
this  property.  One  should  think  that  he  would 
now  rather  pride  himself  upon  possessing  it. 
We  met  his  tenant,  a  respectable  farmer  in 
appearance,  in  a  cart. 

C       92       ] 


JOURNAL 

In  the  orchard,  which  is  a  large  one  (not 
less  than  four  acres),  and  in  the  grove  and 
garden,  many  trees  have  had  their  branches 
carried  away  or  broken,  and  their  trunks 
wounded ;  but  except  in  these  marks,  neither 
the  grounds  or  garden  bore  any  vestiges  of 
war ;  the  flowers  were  in  blossom  and  the  fruit 
on  the  trees.  Indeed,  over  the  whole  field, 
poppies  and  pansies  were  in  bloom ;  you  saw 
them  where  the  footsteps  of  the  cavalry  were 
still  uneffaced ;  and  in  some  parts  upon  the  very 
graves.  I  know  not  whether  it  were  more  mel- 
ancholy or  conciliatory  to  observe  how  soon 
these  lower  creatures  of  nature  recovered  from 
the  havoc  which  had  been  committed  here. 
Between  Hougomont  and  La  Haye  Sainte, 
where  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  wounded, 
two  thousand  bodies  are  buried.  Hats,  from 
all  which  the  lace  has  been  stript,  caps, 
shoes,  belts,  and  such  things  are  still  lying 
about  in  great  niunbers ;  but  crows  and  vul- 
tures are  not  so  active  after  a  battle  as  the 
followers  of  an  army.  "When  Mr.  Werth 
visited  the  field  and  saw  it  in  its  recent  hor- 
rors, all  the  dead  horses  were  lying  on  their 
[       93       ] 


JOURNAL 

backs,  with  their  feet  stiff  up  in  the  air  in  the 
attitude  wherein  they  had  been  placed  by  those 
who  came  for  their  shoes  !  One  of  our  coach- 
men, who  was  there  two  days  after  the  action, 
observed  that  it  was  more  shocking  to  see  the 
wounded  horses  then  the  wounded  men,  be- 
cause, poor  things,  they  had  no  will  of  their 
own,  or  knowledge  why  they  were  thus  tor- 
mented. Colonel  Miller  in  like  manner  spoke 
with  shuddering  of  the  horses  nmning  about 
on  three  legs,  and  bleeding  to  death ;  but  these 
are  thoughts  with  which  a  soldier  must  not 
trust  himself,  and  he  endeavoured  to  cover 
the  feeling  which  it  gave  him  with  a  forced 
laugh. 

Edith  and  her  mother  each  picked  up  a 
flint  and  a  musquet-ball ;  but  relics  of  this 
kind  have  been  diligently  gleaned  for  sale.  I 
bought  a  French  pistol  and  two  ornaments  of 
the  French  infantry  cap  (like  the  leaden  or 
tin  ornaments  of  a  coffin)  for  six  francs,  and 
an  artillery  badge  with  a  grape-shot  for  one. 
Some  of  our  party  bought  swords  and  other 
ornaments  at  about  the  same  rate ;  the  weapons 
so  cheap  as  to  render  the  supposition  that  they 

C      M      3 


JOURNAL 

had  been  bought  up  at  Brussels  and  brought 
hither  for  sale  perfectly  absurd.  A  boy  on  the 
preceding  day  had  found  a  double  Napoleon 
wrapt  in  paper ;  our  guide  told  us  this  more 
than  once,  and  as  often  stopt  to  look  among 
the  stubble  or  grass  in  hope  of  the  like  good 
luck.  He  said  also  that  an  English  General 
who  was  woimded  near  La  Haye  Sainte  had 
hid  in  the  sand-bank  a  bag  containing  two 
hundred  Napoleons,  which  had  never  been 
found;  it  may  well  be  supposed  how  much 
search  this  idle  story  has  occasioned.  The 
people,  he  said,  had  suffered  so  much  by  the 
destruction  of  their  crops  that  they  were  all 
ruined ;  but  they  had  since  been  made  rich  by 
the  English.  Well,  indeed,  has  it  been  for 
them  that  the  field  of  Waterloo  is  within  such 
easy  reach  of  England. 

The  Prussians  are  as  much  detested  here 
as  the  English  are  popular.  The  people  give 
them  their  due  as  soldiers,  and  say  that  they 
came  in  time,  for  the  English  could  not  much 
longer  have  supported  such  a  conflict ;  an  easy 
error  this,  for  persons  who  understood  no- 
thing of  what  was  going  on,  except  their  own 

[       95       ] 


JOURNAL 

danger.  But  the  behaviour  of  the  Prussians 
toward  the  inhabitants  is  represented  as  abom- 
inable, —  nothing  but  insolence,  violence,  and 
rapine.  They  threatened  to  kill  our  guide's 
father,  an  old  man  about  seventy  years  of  age, 
for  not  giving  them  what  he  had  not  to  give. 
This  guide  was  a  man  whose  coimtenance, 
manner,  and  gestures  were  singularly  impres- 
sive. His  exclamations  of  astonishment  at  the 
courage  of  the  allies  were  as  passionate  as  they 
were  frequent.  "  All  fought  well,"  he  said. 
"  The  French  were  like  mad  dogs ;  they  raved 
and  even  foamed  with  fury  when  they  were  told 
to  remember  Jena  and  Wagram.  The  allies  all 
fought  well ;  and  the  English  I  O  mon  Dieu  I 
how  they  fought !  but  especially  the  Scotchmen, 
those  men  without  breeches,  had  it  not  been 
for  them  Mont  St.  Jean  would  have  been 
burnt!"  To  him  it  was  evident  that  the  preser- 
vation of  Mont  St.  Jean  was  the  great  object  of 
the  victory.  He  was  very  angry  that  Waterloo 
should  give  name  to  the  battle.  "  Call  it  Hou- 
gomont,"  he  said  ;  "  call  it  La  Belle  Alliance, 
or  La  Haye  Sainte,  or  Papelot,  or  Mont  St. 
Jean,  —  anything  but  Waterloo !  "  "  When  I 
[        96        ] 


JOURNAL 

told  him  that  I  would  give  it  its  proper  name 
in  England,  he  seemed  perfectly  delighted,  and 
again  and  again  entreated  me  to  remember  this 
promise,  and  set  the  people  in  England  right. 
Misnamed  the  battle  certainly  has  been ;  but 
Waterloo  is  a  word  so  well  suited  to  English 
ears  that  it  must  needs  prevail. 

A  wounded  Frenchman,  who  was  placed 
under  the  surgeon's  care  at  Mont  St.  Jean,  had 
his  arm  amputated ;  as  soon  as  the  operation 
was  over  he  asked  for  the  arm,  and  taking  the 
dead  hand  in  the  living  one,  waved  it  over  his 
head  and  cried,  "  Vive  Napoleon !  "  When  the 
Guide  told  us  this  anecdote,  he  said  he  would 
have  killed  him  if  he  had  been  present,  for 
such  a  man  was  not  fit  to  live.  I  was  silent 
at  this,  knowing  that  if  I  attempted  in  my 
villainous  French  to  modify  his  zeal,  I  should 
only  have  disturbed  a  just  and  natural  feeling. 
For  the  feelings  of  this  honest  Brabanter  were 
all  straightforward;  he  took  them  as  they 
came,  and  troubled  himself  with  none  of  those 
sophistries  which  make  the  worse  appear  the 
better  reason ;  the  road  from  his  heart  to  his 
lips  was  short,  and  on  a  right  line.  More  than 
C       97       ] 


JOURNAL 

once  he  exclaimed  about  the  blood  which  had 
been  shed,  crying  out,  "  And  all  for  one  man ! 
ce  coquin  / "  —  very  anxious  he  was  to  be 
assured  that  we  had  the  tyrant  safe ,  but  he 
repeatedly  said  it  would  have  been  better  to 
have  put  him  to  death;  that  this  ought  to 
have  been  done,  and  that  he  himself  would 
gladly,  with  his  own  hand,  have  performed 
that  act  of  justice.  And  then  he  told  us  how 
his  house  had  been  filled  with  wounded  men  ; 
that  it  was  nothing  but  sawing  off  legs,  and 
sawing  off  arms, —  "  0  mon  Dieuf  and  all 
for  one  man !  Why  did  not  you  put  him  to 
death?" — In  this  proper  feeling  it  always 
ended.  It  was  eight  days  before  all  the 
wounded  were  removed  to  Brussels. 

I  was  glad  to  hear  him  speak  with  enthusi- 
asm of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  whose  wound  has 
been  worth  something,  and  has  given  him  a 
place  in  the  opinion  of  the  people  which  may 
in  no  slight  degree  tend  to  establish  an  inse- 
cure crown.  But  mischievous  spirits  are  at 
work  here.  The  people  here  asked  us  if  it  were 
true  that  there  was  to  be  no  more  Mass.  We 
assured  them  that  this  was  an  abominable 
[       98       ] 


JOURNAL 

falsehood,  circulated  for  wicked  purposes,  and 
that  the  intention  was  for  every  man  to  wor- 
ship in  his  own  way,  leaving  the  old  estab- 
lished religion  of  the  country  untouched.  They 
believed  us,  and  said  that  this  was  as  it  ought 
to  be.  They  were  not  French,  they  said ;  they 
never  had  been  French ;  they  were  Brabant- 
ers ;  and  now  they  belonged  to  Holland.  No, 
I  replied,  you  do  not  belong  to  Holland,  Hol- 
land rather  belongs  to  you ;  for  the  seat  of 
Government  is  with  you,  and  you  are  the 
richer  and  better  part.  Singly  you  were  each 
too  weak ;  together  you  will  be  strong  enough 
to  stand.  They  observed  that  they  were  more 
English  than  French;  I  answered  that  they 
and  the  English  were  children  of  one  stock ; 
nations  of  the  same  family,  who  by  inclination 
and  interest  ought  to  be  allies  and  friends. 
This  conversation  past  while  we  were  cross- 
ing the  open  fields  from  Hougomont  to  La 
Belle  Alliance,  whither  the  two  carriages  had 
proceeded  along  the  high-road. 

La  Belle  Alliance,  where  Bliicher  and  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  met  after  the  victory,  is 
a  poor  farmhouse,  almost  as  much  worse  than 

[       W       ] 


JOURNAL 

La  Haye  Sainte  as  that  dwelling  of  a  sub- 
stantial yeoman  is  inferior  to  the  Chateau  de 
Hougomont.  Since  the  action  it  has  been 
converted  into  a  public  house,  the  owners  hav- 
ing wisely  profited  by  the  opportunity  which 
Fortune  offered  them.  On  the  Sunday  before 
our  visit,  the  Emperor  Alexander  dined  there, 
and  threw  Napoleons  among  the  people, 
whereby  he  purchased  much  popularity  at  small 
cost.  The  woman  of  the  house  was  near  the 
hour  of  her  delivery,  when  the  approach  of 
the  two  armies  drove  her  into  the  woods ;  she 
has  since  had  twins.  There  is  a  well  behind 
the  house ;  twice  I  dropt  stones  into  it,  and 
each  time  distinctly  counted  twelve  before  the 
sound  reached  the  water.  The  water  is  said 
to  be  good;  but  it  was  not  clear  enough  in 
the  bucket  for  me  to  be  induced  to  taste  it. 
Behind  the  wall,  near  a  ruined  outhouse,  a 
Frenchman  is  buried  in  a  dimghiU,  and  the 
bone  of  one  leg  with  the  shoe  on  is  lying 
above  ground,  as  if  it  had  been  carried  off  by 
the  shot  which  killed  him,  and  left  out  when 
he  was  buried,  either  from  negligence,  or  per- 
haps  as  a  sight!  —  Here  we  had  bread  and 
[      100      ] 


JOURNAL 

cheese,  wine  and  fruit.  The  cheese,  called 
Bullets  from  their  size  and  shape,  rich  and 
good,  tho'  very  odorous  and  strong.  From 
hence  to  Genap  is  two  short  leagues,  over  an 
open  and  uninteresting  country.  We  past  by 
the  remains  of  a  few  houses  which  it  was  said 
the  enemy  had  burnt  in  their  retreat.  Burnt 
the  houses  certainly  had  been,  but  the  French 
when  they  retreated  were  in  too  much  haste 
to  lose  any  time  in  making  bonfires  by  the 
way.  The  mischief  had  probably  been  done 
before  the  action. 

Genap  is  a  poor  town,  about  the  size  of 
Keswick.  We  were  in  an  Inn  called  Le  Roy 
d'Espagne,  from  which  appellation  it  may  be 
inferred  that  the  house  was  an  Inn  before 
the  Succession  War.  But  whatever  may  be 
its  age,  it  has  now  become  a  memorable  place. 
Wellington  had  his  headquarters  here  on  the 
17th,  Buonaparte  on  the  18th,  Bliicher  on  the 
19th.  And  to  this  house  it  was  that  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick's  body  was  brought,  and  laid  on 
a  table  in  the  room  opposite  to  that  which  we 
occupied.  They  told  us  that  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington embraced  the  body,  which  is  not  very 

[       101      ] 


JOURNAL 

likely,  and  that  he  wept  over  it  and  called 
the  Duke  his  friend  and  his  brother  in  arms. 
But  these  things  are  not  according  to  the  Eng- 
lish character  nor  to  that  of  the  individual. 
The  Brunswick  oJBficers  knelt  round  the  body, 
and  vowed  vengeance.  General  Duhesme  was 
cut  down  by  a  Brunswicker  at  the  Inn-door, 
where  the  sabre  has  left  some  of  its  marks  on 
the  side  posts,  and  the  blood-stains  are  not 
yet  effaced.  For  fuller  justice,  the  stroke 
should  have  come  from  a  Catalan  hand.  —  It 
was  in  this  town,  too,  that  the  Comte  de  Loban, 
General  Mouton,  became  a  lost  mutton. — 
There  are  bullet-holes  over  our  parlour  fire- 
place, in  our  bedroom  cieling,  and  thro '  our 
bedroom  door.  —  The  Prussians  were  not  in 
a  humour  that  night  for  making  prisoners ;  and 
there  had  been  fighting  in  the  houses  as  well 
as  in  the  street. 

The  Inn  is  much  better  than  would  be  found 
in  England  in  so  mean  and  inconsiderable  a 
place.  We  had  a  comfortable  wood  fire.  Here 
I  should  think  coal  must  be  the  cheaper  fuel ; 
but  there  is  probably  a  prejudice  against  it,  or 
a  pride  in  using  the  cleaner  materials,  as  there 
[      102      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

long  continued  to  be  in  London.  The  kitchen 
range  was  peculiar  and  excellently  convenient. 
A  round  brazen  stone  holds  the  fire  nearly  in 
the  middle  of  the  room ;  and  the  funnel,  which 
conmiunicates  with  the  wall,  is  broad  enough 
for  large  dishes  to  stand  on,  along  its  whole 
length,  and  has  under  it  in  one  place  a  sort  of 
square  oven,  or  cupboard,  suspended,  for  what 
is  here  called  roasting.  The  fireplace  in  the 
bedroom  was  unlike  anything  I  had  seen  of  the 
kind ;  it  is  circular  and  concave,  like  an  oven, 
and  at  the  bottom  of  this  circle  is  a  small, 
square  grate  with  perpendicular  bars.  Our 
sitting-room  is  papered  with  a  French  paper, 
containing  little  landscapes  in  good  taste,  and 
a  very  rich  border.  The  lower  part  was  cov- 
ered with  a  singular  pattern,  of  tea  and  coffee 
services  set  out  upon  a  table. 

Wednesday  f  4  Oct. 

W  E  had  a  dismal  night ;  not  from  the  re- 
collections of  the  day,  or  the  feelings  which 
the  house  itself  excited  with  its  buUet-holes 
and  blood-stains,  and  marks  of  the  sabre,  — 
we  were  fatigued  enough  to  have  slept  soundly 
[      103      ] 


JOURNAL 

in  spite  of  all  this.  But  all  night  long  we 
were  disturbed  by  the  almost  continual  passing 
of  heavy  coal  waggons,  rattling  like  fire  engines 
in  London,  only  with  a  slower  and  heavier 
sound.  The  whole  artillery  of  an  army  could 
not  more  effectually  have  prevented  sleep ;  and 
by  way  of  lighter  music  in  the  intervals,  we 
had  the  cracking  of  the  whips  (every  crack 
loud  as  a  pistol  shot)  of  all  the  posts  who 
pass  thro '  this  town  to  or  from  Brussels.  The 
coachman  told  us  yesterday  that  this  was  an 
assez  honne  auherge ;  but  this  morning  he 
asked  us  if  we  had  slept?  and  then  told  us 
that  nobody  ever  slept  at  Genap ;  it  was  im- 
possible to  sleep  there,  because  of  the  coal 
waggons  and  the  posts. 

There  is  a  Raven  in  the  yard  here,  fitfty  years 
old  —  the  first  which  Edith  May  had  ever 
seen,  except  in  the  air.  The  coachman  tells 
us  we  shall  see  one  at  Maestricht  which  has 
been  there  an  hundred  and  ten  years.  The 
fellow  here  put  his  head  thro '  the  bars  of 
his  house  as  if  inviting  me  to  caress  him.  I 
scratched  his  head,  much  to  his  satisfaction 
as  it  appeared,  for  about  a  minute ;  and  then 
[      104      ] 


JOURNAL 

the  rascal  made  a  stroke  at  my  hand,  which  I 
was  lucky  enough  to  avoid. 

Mr.  Nash  and  I  walked  thro'  the  town.  In 
one  of  the  shops  we  saw  the  common  mouse- 
trap of  the  country,  which  is  even  simpler  in 
its  construction  than  ours;  flour  is  used  as 
the  bait,  and  it  is  so  placed  that  in  getting  at 
it  the  mouse  brings  down  a  broad  block  of 
wood  which  crushes  him.  I  asked  the  price  of 
a  showy  handkerchief,  intending  to  buy  it  as 
a  curiosity  for  good  old  Mrs.  Wilson ;  the  wo- 
man in  the  shop  absurdly  supposed  that  I 
could  not  possibly  mean  to  purchase  it,  and 
therefore  said  that  the  price  was  ten  francs, 
the  probable  value  being  two ;  so  she  disap- 
pointed me,  and  lost  a  customer. 

At  the  end  of  the  town  is  the  bridge  where 
Buonaparte  was  so  long  impeded  in  his  flight ; 
so  insignificant  a  one  it  is  that,  but  for  this 
circimistance,  we  should  have  past  it  with- 
out notice,  and  perhaps  hardly  have  known 
that  a  bridge  was  there.  The  Dyle  is  a  mere 
ditch,  the  water  being  at  this  time  scarcely 
sole-deep,  and  the  width  not  above  ten  or 
twelve  feet.  We  were  told  that  the  mills  had 
[      106      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

now  drawn  off  the  water,  and  that  it  was  full 
at  the  time  of  the  battle.  But  however  full  it 
might  be,  it  never  could  impede  any  men  who 
were  flying  for  their  lives,  if  they  could  find 
the  way  to  its  banks.  Some  houses  come  close 
to  it,  near  the  bridge,  both  on  the  right  and 
left,  and  thus  it  was  that  the  difficulty  was 
occasioned. 

The  best  point  of  view  for  this  little  town 
is  looking  back  upon  it,  a  little  while  after 
you  have  crost  the  bridge.  Not  that  it  is 
anywhere  picturesque,  but  being  a  memorable 
place  on  other  accounts,  as  well  as  for  its  rela- 
tion with  these  late  events,  it  is  desirable  that 
we  should  have  views  of  it;  and  in  this 
direction  there  is  a  church  which  comes  in 
weU. 

A  straight  and  uninteresting  league  of  paved 
road  brought  us  to  Les  Quatre  Bras,  or  what 
in  English  we  should  call  the  Cross  Koads. 
This  having  been  the  scene  of  so  severe  a  con- 
test, I  thought  it  worth  while  to  copy  what 
the  directing  post  bears,  close  to  the  house 
into  which  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  first 
carried :  — 

[      106      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

3/4  de  pt*  ver  St.  Doules 
2/4  de  p*«  ver  Genappe 
2/4  de  p*e  ver  Marbais 
2/6  de  p*«  ver  Frasne 

Tliis  house  is  at  the  farthest  comer,  on  the 
right  hand.  Its  owner,  a  fat  and  jolly  Bra- 
banter,  kept  close  in  the  stable  during  the  action, 
tiU  the  balls  came  in  so  fast  that  he  thought  it 
prudent  to  seek  some  safer  place.  This  man  re- 
membered the  last  time  the  English  were  here, 
and  remembered  it  with  some  pride  and  plea- 
sure ;  for  the  Duke  of  York  slept  in  this  house, 
upon  the  owner's  bed,  and  gave  him  a  louis 
d'or  for  the  inconvenience  to  which  he  had 
been  put.  Nothing  had  been  taken  from  him, 
for  the  Duke's  people  brought  their  food,  and 
thus  they  left  a  good  report  behind  them,  — 
much  better  than  the  Prussians  have  left  at 
this  time ;  for  here  and  at  Genappe,  heartily 
as  the  French  are  hated,  the  Prussians  are 
spoken  of  with  equal  bitterness,  — ^perhaps  with 
more,  because  they  came  in  the  character  of 
friends,  and  acted  as  rapaciously  as  enemies. 

We  were  told  of  a  French  Officer  who  would 
have  been  taken  prisoner  here  if  he  had  not 
C      107      ] 


JOURNAL 

provided  himself  with  a  white  cockade  in  his 
pocket,  and  attempted  to  put  it  on  when  for- 
tune failed  him  on  the  three-coloured  side : 
when  this  was  perceived  he  was  cut  down  as  a 
fellow  who  was  true  to  neither  party ;  a  con- 
clusion which,  tho'  natural  enough  in  hot 
blood,  would  but  ill  bear  revision ;  for  it  seems 
much  more  probable  that  he  was  sincerely  at- 
tached to  the  Bourbon  cause,  and  meant  to 
take  the  first  opportunity  of  joining  it. 

Our  jolly  Brabanter  expatiated  in  praise  of 
the  Prince  of  Orange ;  and  here  (as  at  Mont 
St.  Jean)  his  youth  was  accounted  among  his 
merits  —  so  handsome  he  was  —  and  so  brave  ! 
"  Oh,  he  fought  like  a  Devil  on  horseback." 
But  when  he  spoke  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton he  said,  "  Sacre  Dieu  1  What  a  man 
is  that  I "  and  putting  [his  finger  to  his  eye, 
"  He  sees  everywhere."  Here,  too,  we  found 
the  same  disposition  to  claim  afiinity  with  the 
English. 

The  place  where  the  Scotch  suffered  so  se- 
verely is  just  at  the  opposite  comer,  and  there 
are  the  most  graves  —  too  hastily  made.  In  one 
the  bare  ribs  of  a  skeleton  were  exposed ;  dogs 
[      108      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

or  swine  I  believe  had  opened  it.  Mrs.  Var- 
don's  maid,  Mary,  and  William,  their  man, 
saw  another  in  which  the  worms  were  at  work ; 
they  wished  to  persuade  themselves  that  it  was 
the  body  of  a  horse  which  had  been  thus  negli- 
gently covered ;  for  myself  I  turned  away,  not 
chusing  wilfully  to  look  upon  these  loathsome 
features  of  mortality.  The  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick fell  a  little  in  advance  of  these  graves. 
The  rage,  the  absolute  rabies^  of  the  French 
in  this  action  had  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  our  friend;  they  curst  the  English 
while  they  were  fighting,  and  curst  the  pre- 
cision with  which  their  grape-shot  were  fired, 
which,  the  man  said,  was  neither  too  high  nor 
too  low,  but  struck  right  in  the  middle. 

The  great  Golgotha  is  opposite  this  man's 
house.  At  the  comer  diagonally  opposite  to 
his  dwelling  is  a  bam  bearing  many  marks  of 
cannon-shot.  Nothing  was  offered  for  sale 
here;  the  Waterlooers  not  going  beyond  La 
Belle  Alliance. 

Here  we  left  the  Charleroy  road,  and  struck 
to  the  left.  Koster,  Mr.  Vardon,  and  I  walked 
on.  Caps,  shoes,  etc.,  were  lying  by  the  way- 
[      109      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

side,  and  there  were  patches  of  bare  earth 
which  we  did  not  immediately  recognise  as  so 
many  graves,  common  or  solitary.  One  was 
open,  and  the  greater  part  of  a  skeleton  ex- 
posed; this  seems  to  have  excited  a  proper 
feeling,  and  many  of  the  nearest  graves  were 
secured  by  heaps  of  stones  from  the  animals 
which  had  uncovered  it. 

The  coimtry  became  more  hilly  and  varied. 
About  three  mUes  from  the  Cross  Roads,  the 
greater  part  having  been  a  gradual  ascent,  we 
came  to  a  village,  where  from  the  Church 
Tower  Buonaparte,  as  we  were  informed,  di- 
rected the  attack  upon  the  Prussians.  Here, 
by  advice  of  the  peasants,  we  left  the  car- 
riages which  were  to  proceed  to  Sombref ,  and 
wait  for  us  at  a  house  which  they  called  Sa- 
lade,  imless  that  were  the  name  of  the  person 
who  keeps  it,  one  of  the  coachmen  saying  that 
if  we  should  not  be  satisfied  with  our  enter- 
tainment there,  we  might  cut  off  his  head. 

The  young  man  who  now  guided  us  had  been 
carried  with  his  father  before  Buonaparte  to 
give  intelligence.  He  led  us  to  the  village  of 
Brie  or  St.  Brie,  near  which,  according  to  his 

[     no     ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

account,  the  bloodiest  part  of  the  action  had 
been  carried  on,  by  the  windmill  of  St.  Amand. 
Graves  enough  were  visible  to  show  that  the 
slaughter  there  had  been  very  great ;  and  we 
were  told  stories  of  the  wounded,  which  in- 
stead of  repeating  I  would  gladly,  if  it  were 
possible,  forget.  All  the  houses  here  were 
filled  with  wounded,  and  there  was  no  medical 
aid.  Many  beggars  beset  us,  but  nothing  was 
offered  for  sale.  Caps,  shoes,  and  French 
cards  were  lying  about  the  ploughed  fields; 
for  here  as  on  the  other  scene  of  battle  the 
surface  of  the  earth  had  lost  all  other  traces 
of  the  tragedy,  —  almost,  it  might  be  said,  as 
compleatly  and  as  soon  as  the  sea  loses  all  ves- 
tiges of  a  tempest  in  which  whole  fleets  are 
wrecked.  From  St.  Amand  to  Ligny  is  nearly 
a  mile,  and  the  intermediate  space,  an  open 
field,  is  well  manured  with  the  dead.  Accord- 
ing to  the  guide's  account  the  French  lost  more 
than  the  Prussians ;  and  the  carnage  on  both 
sides  was  enormous.  The  rivulet,  as  it  is  called, 
nms  from  St.  Amand  to  Ligny  ;  it  is  too  in- 
significant a  stream  to  have  any  name  upon 
the  spot,  tho'  a  stream  it  is.   In  many  places 

[     111     3 


JOURNAL 

a  child  might  step  across  it,  and  I  think  it  was 
nowhere  ancle-deep.  But  the  battle  was  fought 
in  a  wet  season ;  and  the  guide  observed  that 
the  Prussians  might  have  derived  some  ad- 
vantage from  the  water-course  if  they  had  be- 
stowed a  little  labour  in  widening  it.  You  cross 
it  by  a  bridge  near  the  Castle,  which,  as  you 
advance  in  this  direction,  is  at  the  extremity 
of  the  village,  on  the  right  hand.  The  Castle 
is  a  very  picturesque  object,  with  a  moat  and 
bridge.  It  was  in  ruins  before  the  battle,  but 
bears  marks  of  having  been  fitted  up  as  a  resi- 
dence some  century  ago,  when  the  long  avenue 
was  planted.  In  one  of  the  older  rooms  there 
is  a  circular  opening  in  the  middle,  like  the 
mouth  of  a  mattamore ;  but  this  was  the  en- 
trance of  a  dungeon.  The  court  had  been 
converted  into  a  farmyard,  with  substantial 
buildings  round  it;  the  whole  of  these  were 
burnt  during  the  conflict,  and  the  live  stock 
perished  in  the  flames  !  In  front  of  the  village 
on  this  side,  which  is  to  say  at  the  back  of 
the  street,  are  large  quarries  of  granite,  from 
whence  fine  blocks  used  to  be  sent  in  great 
quantities  for  the  public  buildings  at  Paris; 

[      112      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

many  are  now  lying  there  for  which  there  is 
no  market.  A  great  many  houses  have  been 
burnt ;  they  are  all  built  of  stone,  but  unhap- 
pily were  covered  with  thatch.  The  people 
here  all  agree  that  the  Prussians  would  have 
kept  their  ground  if  they  had  not  been  burnt 
out.  They  were  busily  at  work,  at  almost 
every  house,  in  repairing  the  mischief  which 
had  been  done.  Ligny  is  a  pretty  village,  and 
before  its  disasters  must  have  borne  a  general 
appearance  of  substantial  comfort. 

We  had  walked  a  long  while  on  a  hot  day, 
and  cast  longing  eyes  upon  the  grapes  and 
pears  which  were  growing  against  the  houses 
that  had  escaped  destruction.  Our  guide,  at 
our  desire,  entered  one,  and  requested  that 
the  owner  would  have  the  kindness  to  sell  a 
little  fruit  to  some  strangers.  We  were  im- 
mediately invited  in,  and  the  mistress  of  the 
house,  an  old  lady,  meanly  drest,  received  us 
in  her  kitchen,  with  a  native  politeness  and 
genuine  hospitality  which  I  cannot  praise  more 
than  it  deserves.  Grapes  and  pears  were 
brought,  and  coffee  offered  us.  Her  name 
sounded  like  Le  Brun,  but  even  in  our  own 

C      113      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

language  it  is  not  easy  to  ascertain  names  by 
merely  hearing  them.  Buonaparte  had  been 
in  her  house  after  the  battle,  and  she  and  her 
family  were  in  the  cellar.  Tho '  the  house 
had  escaped,  she  had  suffered  greatly,  Van- 
damme,  more  siro,  having  pillaged  the  whole 
place.  This  General,  according  to  every  ac- 
count, is  one  of  the  vilest  wretches  in  the 
French  army.  The  Prussians  are  not  disliked 
here,  for  an  obvious  reason :  their  behaviour 
in  action  had  excited  admiration,  and  their 
sufferings  had  excited  compassion ;  their  de- 
portment in  peace  there  had  been  no  oppor- 
tunity of  observing.  The  French  were  cor- 
dially execrated,  and  Buonaparte  was  spoken 
of  as  the  worst  of  criminals.  Our  guide  won- 
dered and  regretted  that  he  had  not  been  put 
to  death,  and  declared  that  he  would  willingly 
kill  him  with  his  own  hand.  I  am  fully  per- 
suaded that  the  execution  of  that  Tyrant  woidd 
have  been  the  most  useful  act  of  justice  that 
ever  was  performed. 

In  this  kitchen  where  we  were  so  hospitably 
entertained,  —  all  payment  in  any  shape  being 
refused,  —  fire-balls  were   used,  composed  of 
[      114      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

clay  and  finely  pounded  coal.  The  common 
dress  of  the  men  is  a  short  blue  smock  frock, 
girt  roimd  the  waist  j  it  is  clean  and  commodi- 
ous, and  looks  well. 

Our  Guide  asked  the  same  questions  as  his 
predecessor  concerning  the  state  of  religion 
under  the  new  government,  and  expressed 
great  confidence  in  the  young  Prince  because 
he  had  lived  so  much  in  England,  —  a  country 
of  which  the  people  here  evidently  think  as 
they  ought  to  do.  Everything,  he  said,  had 
been  reviving  here,  before  Buonaparte  returned 
from  Elbe.  His  father  had  taken  the  barriere 
at  that  time,  and  now,  when  everything  was  at 
a  stand,  the  Government  in  consideration  had 
remitted  a  quarter's  payment,  and  he  had  no 
doubt  this  indidgence  would  be  extended  if 
the  times  did  not  mend.  He  spoke  very  reason- 
ably of  the  loss  which  had  been  sustained  ;  it 
fell  heavy  where  it  fell ;  but  it  had  only  been 
partial.  The  greater  part  of  the  coxmtry  had 
not  suffered  anything;  and  if  an  additional 
contribution  were  levied  upon  the  whole  de- 
partment to  relieve  the  sufferers,  it  would  fall 
lightly  upon  all. 

C      115      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

"We  were  told  that  the  Prussians  call  Bliicher 
Le  Guidon^  the  Banner,  because  he  is  always 
at  their  head,  and  in  the  hottest  fire. 

Wells  are  numerous  here,  and  indeed  all 
the  way  from  Brussels ;  their  number  is  a  sure 
indication  of  wealth;  they  would  not  be  so 
frequent  and  so  near  each  other,  unless  the 
inhabitants  could  well  afford  to  sink  them. 

We  walked  across  the  fields  to  Sombref, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half,  half  an  hour's  walk 
at  a  brisk  Lady's  pace,  following  the  course 
of  the  brook.  We  went  thro'  the  village, 
and  on  a  hill  on  the  other  side  came  to  the 
miberge^  which  was  kept  by  the  niece  of  the 
old  Lady  to  whom  we  felt  ourselves  so  much 
obliged.  The  mistress  was  a  newly  married 
woman,  of  seven  or  eight  and  twenty,  of  strik- 
ing countenance  and  manners.  Such  a  viUage 
in  England  would  have  afforded  nothing  better 
than  alehouse  fare.  The  house  here  was  not 
better  than  a  respectable  alehouse,  but  it  sup- 
plied us  with  a  good  dinner,  good  wine  (bet- 
ter, indeed,  than  we  had  foimd  at  Brussels), 
and  a  good  dessert.  For  this,  however,  we  were 
charged  dearly  —  fifty-four  francs.   We  were 

[      116      ] 


JOURNAL 

nine  in  number,  besides  two  servants  and  two 
guides.  Everywhere  abroad  Englishmen  are 
made  to  pay  for  the  wealth  of  their  country, 
and  here  we  fared  so  well,  and  were  served 
with  such  cheerful  alacrity,  that  we  were  not 
disposed  to  complain. 

Proceeding  towards  Namur,  we  past  a  very 
large  waggon  made  of  basket-work.  Saint  boxes 
are  frequent  in  this  country ;  I  call  them  so 
because  they  are  shaped  like  watch  boxes.  The 
Saint  is  generally  a  little  doll  in  a  niche,  be- 
hind a  glass  and  a  grate.  The  field  pigs  which 
we  have  seen  are  lean  and  lank  as  greyhounds, — 
miserable-looking  wretches.  Considering  how 
easily  pigs  are  fed,  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
how  these  people  contrive  to  starve  them,  — 
unless  they  themselves  eat  what  would  go  to 
the  pigs  in  England. 

Beyond  Sombref  there  is  a  fine  chateau  to 
the  right,  seated  among  woods,  with  a  stream 
at  the  bottom,  but  too  far  from  the  road  to  be 
seen  distinctly.  A  pretty  village  lies  on  the 
road,  where  this  stream  crosses  it,  and  close 
by  the  bridge  is  a  Chateau  on  the  left,  with 
fine  grounds.    The  female  inhabitants  were  at 

[      117      ] 


J  O  U  K  N  A  li 

the  windows,  looking  at  us  with  as  much  curi- 
osity as  we  felt  towards  them. 

Evening  closed  in  before  we  reached  Namur, 
and  thus  we  lost  the  approach  to  that  city. 
The  lamps  here  are  suspended  across  to  the 
street,  according  to  the  French  custom.  After 
driving  thro '  streets  of  no  very  inviting 
appearance,  we  stopt  at  the  Hotel  d'Hars- 
camp.  The  outside  is  the  gable  end  of  a  large 
house  without  windows,  and  the  gates  were 
shut ;  this  had  a  doleful  appearance  while 
the  questions  respecting  beds  were  going  on ; 
the  conference,  however,  ended  in  having  the 
gates  opened,  and  we  then  drove  thrb '  one 
large  court  into  another.  There  was  only  light 
enough  for  seeing  a  church  tower  close  at 
hand,  which  had  a  very  picturesque  appearance 
in  the  obscurity.  A  boy  waylaid  me  at  the 
door  of  the  house  and  proffered  his  services 
as  a  pimp, —  such  are  the  manners  of  these 
countries !  but  if  such  offers  were  always 
answered  with  an  admonitory  malediction  by 
foreigners,  they  would  certainly  not  so  fre- 
quently be  made.  We  were  ushered  into  an 
excellent  room,  —  the  paper  represented  a 
[      118      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

landscape  of  the  country,  with  quite  a  scenic 
effect ;  and  as  some  person  was  singing  in  an 
adjoining  room,  the  intermediate  door  being 
open,  Edith  May  observed  that  it  was  like  be- 
ing at  a  play.  The  room  has  some  singularly 
handsome  pieces  of  furniture,  of  the  wood 
which  they  call  Acajou,  and  which  resembles 
the  very  finest  mahogany,  with  white  marble 
tops.  A  carpet  cloth  for  the  table,  and  the 
room  itself  was  carpeted,  the  only  one  which 
we  foimd  thus  covered  during  our  whole  jour- 
ney. 

Thursday,  5  Oct. 

JLhis  house  had  been  the  residence  of  a 
Lady  of  rank  and  large  possessions,  who  be- 
queathed it  to  some  charitable  institution,  and 
by  that  institution  it  is  let  for  an  Hotel.  The 
house  is  a  fine  one  —  twenty-five  stairs  in  one 
flight  lead  to  the  first  floor,  twenty-three  to 
the  second.  The  court  which  we  first  entered 
is  full  of  orange-trees  and  other  ornamental 
shrubs,  having  nasturcians  between  them, 
which  are  now  in  profuse  blossom,  hanging 
from  vase  to  vase.    There  is  a  canary  bird  hero 

[      119      ] 


JOURNAL 

so  tame  that  it  flies  about  the  court,  and  goes 
about  on  the  head  of  one  of  the  waiters,  and 
pitches  familiarly  upon  any  person's  shoulder  ; 
thus  it  did  to  Edith  May,  and  thus  we  were 
told  it  had  done  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
who  was  exceedingly  pleased  at  this  mark  of 
confidence. 

The  wash-hand-basons  here  are  called  dishes, 
and  we  had  proof  that  they  are  used  for  both 
purposes ;  one  of  the  Ladies  asking  for  a  second 
bason  was  told  that  the  sallad  should  be  taken 
out  of  it  for  her.  The  same  sort  of  beds  we 
have  found  everywhere,  except  at  Bruges. 
They  are  placed  against  the  wall  sideways, 
and  a  half  circle  of  iron  is  fixed  in  the  wall 
at  a  great  height  for  the  curtains.  The  bed- 
room floors  are  uncarpeted  and  unclean ;  the 
doors  and  locks  everywhere  clumsy,  almost  as 
clumsy  as  in  Portugal.  We  were  annoyed  all 
night  by  the  clocks  and  church  bells ;  the  nine 
o'clock  bell  seemed  close  at  our  ears,  and  a 
more  dolorous  sound  I  never  remember  to 
have  heard.  I  told  the  waiter  in  the  morning 
that  this  cloches  was  a  bad  neighbour ;  and  he 
smiled  and  agreed  with  me. 
[      120      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

Before  the  rest  of  the  party  made  their  ap- 
pearance, one  of  our  coachmen  led  me  to  the 
bridge,  as  if  impatient  that  I  should  see  some 
of  the  fine  parts  of  the  city.  There  is  a 
bridge  over  the  Sambre,  some  fifty  yards  above 
the  point  where  it  falls  into  the  Meuse;  here, 
looking  up  the  river,  the  view  is  most  singu- 
lar. It  is  confined  for  some  distance  between 
the  back  part  of  some  old  streets,  and  from 
every  house  an  apparatus  for  fishing  was  sus- 
pended, such  as  we  saw  at  Ostend  and  at  Brus- 
sels. A  mill  of  some  kind  stretches  half  across 
the  stream ;  and  farther,  on  the  left,  are  the 
heights  with  the  ruins  of  the  Castle.  My 
guide,  leaving  those  ruins  for  a  second  visit 
when  the  whole  party  should  be  collected,  took 
me  round  the  heights  on  the  town  side  to  the 
walk  by  the  Meuse,  and  the  bridge ;  a  less 
singular  but  much  finer  view;  the  heights, 
the  ruins,  and  the  course  of  the  river  beyond, 
between  gardens  and  villas,  forming  a  pros- 
pect of  extraordinary  richness  and  beauty. 
He  told  me  that  some  of  those  gardens  were 
places  where  parties  went  in  summer. 

After  breakfast  we  took  a  Commissionaire 
[      121      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

as  they  call  the  porters  and  lacquies  in  this 
country,  and  he  led  us  up  the  heights,  on  the 
side  of  the  Sambre,  under  the  ruins  of  the 
Castle.  Thence  we  had  an  admirable  view  of 
the  junction  of  the  rivers,  the  city,  and  the 
vale  down  which  the  Sambre  flows.  Having 
reached  the  summit,  we  had  then  a  view  of 
the  bridge  and  the  Meuse.  The  rich  autumnal 
tints  of  the  wild  part  of  the  landscape  inmie- 
diately  on  the  right  (towards  Dinant)  blended 
most  beautifully  with  the  darker  green  of  the 
cultivated  groves  and  gardens,  which  reached 
to  the  skirts  of  this  unreclaimed  ground.  The 
heights  on  which  we  stood,  with  a  river  on  both 
sides,  reminded  us  a  little  of  Durham ;  the 
Meuse  above  the  bridge,  a  little  of  the  Thames 
at  Richmond,  tho '  it  wanted  (especially  on 
the  farther  bank)  the  luxuriant  foliage  which 
makes  the  view  from  Richmond  Hill  unequalled 
in  its  kind.  An  islet  in  the  Meuse  much  re- 
sembles that  in  the  Thames  which  fronts  you 
from  Richmond  HUl,  and  on  which  I  have  so 
often  wished  to  see  a  grove  of  poplars,  as  the 
only  improvement  (and  a  very  great  one  it 
would  be)  of  which  that  scene  is  capable. 

[       122       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

We  returned  along  the  summit  thro'  the 
ruins,  where  an  artist  might  find  employment 
for  many  days.  This  must  certainly  have 
been  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  in  Europe. 
There  is  a  large  open  cistern,  which  seems  to 
have  been  formed  by  blowing  up  the  rock, 
and  thus  enlarging  a  natural  hollow :  you  de- 
scend by  some  fifteen  or  twenty  steps ;  the 
water  is  green,  and  probably  has  no  other 
source  than  the  ruins.  How  different  from 
that  delightful  mountain  cistern  of  the  purest 
water,  in  the  Moorish  Castle  at  Cintra.  A 
few  habitations  have  been  run  up  among  the 
ruins.  The  excavations,  arches,  walls,  towers, 
and  frequent  steps  make  this  a  most  pictur- 
esque place.  But  in  descending  into  the  town 
there  was  work  for  the  scavenger  as  well  as 
the  artist ;  all  the  perfumes  of  Arabia  could 
not  have  prevailed  over  the  stench  which  pro- 
ceeded from  its  defilements. 

I  should  think  this  fortress  could  only  have 
been  reduced  by  famine. 

This  is  the  first  place  which  we  have  seen 
in  a  fine  situation ;  but  the  situation  and  the 
ruins  are  all  that  Namur  can  boast.  The  City 
[      123      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

itself  is  without  beauty  of  any  kind.  The 
Low  Country  stile  of  building  does  not  extend 
so  far,  the  houses  are  totally  unornamented, 
and  the  Churches  have  neither  the  charm  of 
antiquity  nor  of  magnificence.  It  is  a  manu- 
facturing town,  chiefly  of  cutlery,  and  of 
course  both  the  place  and  the  people  are 
dirty.  I  bought  "  Valentine  and  Orson,"  and 
"  Les  Quatre  Fils  d'Aymon,"  both  printed  at 
Lisle  in  close  type  and  on  coarse  paper,  for 
popular  sale.  Here  and  at  Brussels  a  deer's 
foot  is  sometimes  used  as  the  handle  of  a  bell ; 
and  the  Apothecaries  have  usually  a  stag's 
horns  over  their  door. 

We  left  Namur  by  the  direct  road  to  France, 
over  the  bridge ;  but  presently  turned  to  the 
left,  eastward,  and  kept  along  the  banks  of 
the  river.  The  road  for  six  leagues  to  Huy  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  that  I  ever  trav- 
elled ;  that  from  Longtown  to  Langholme  is 
not  more  so  ;  that  from  Ambleside  to  Kes- 
wick, scarcely,  if  at  all.  It  is  foolish  to  com- 
pare things  so  different,  and  yet  the  folly  is  so 
natural  that  I  am  as  prone  to  it  as  if  I  did 
not  know  it  to  be  foolish.  The  Meuse  in  its 
[      124      ] 


JOURNAL 

ordinary  width  seems  something  wider  than 
the  Thames  at  Richmond,  but  it  varies  more 
both  in  breadth  and  depth.  At  Namur  we 
saw  a  horse  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  towing 
a  vessel  against  the  stream,  and  the  barge 
which  plies  with  passengers  from  that  city  to 
Liege  is  in  like  manner  drawn  in  the  water, 
where  the  course  of  the  road  or  of  the  stream 
does  not  allow  the  animal  to  perform  his  work 
on  dry  ground.  A  second  beast  was  on  board 
to  relieve  its  comrade  ;  for  it  is  severe  work, 
and  we  were  told  that  the  animals  thus  em- 
ployed were  soon  worn  out.  It  is  difficult 
work  also  for  the  rider,  for  the  bed  of  the 
river  is  full  of  holes,  and  therefore  great  skill 
and  great  experience  are  necessary  for  the 
dangerous  task  of  driving.  This  is  the  reason 
why  only  one  horse  is  used,  even  in  drawing 
against  the  stream  ;  tho'  four  are  allowed  to 
the  Trekschuits  on  the  Flemish  canals.  It 
may  be  hoped  for  mercy's  sake  that  steam- 
boats will  soon  be  introduced  here. 

The  road  lies  along  the  right  bank,  under 
rocks  which  from  the  number  of  kilns  I  sup- 
pose to  be  limestone.     The  villages  are  very 
[      125      ] 


JOURNAL 

numerous  and  mostly  very  beautiful.  The 
crags  are  sufficiently  high  for  a  painter,  and 
more  varied  in  their  forms  than  any  which  I 
can  remember  to  have  seen  elsewhere.  In 
some  places  they  jutted  out  like  buttresses, 
in  others  rose  like  spires  and  pinnacles  and 
the  chimneys  of  ruined  buildings.  They  were 
most  richly  adorned  with  brushwood,  and  with 
a  small-leaved  ivy,  and  with  another  creeper 
which  I  believe  is  the  nightshade.  The  views 
of  Namur  were  strikingly  picturesque,  and 
they  varied  every  minute  till  we  lost  sight  of 
it.  Perhaps  the  finest  is  between  two  and 
three  miles  off,  where  the  city  appears  behind 
a  bend  of  the  Meuse,  and  that  fine  river  forms 
the  foreground.  Some  houses  were  pointed 
out  to  us  on  the  left  bank,  which  were  partly 
excavated  in  the  rock,  —  one  remarkable  one 
with  hanging  gardens,  where  there  was  an 
archway  under  one  of  the  terraces,  leading 
into  the  excavations,  and  in  that  archway  a 
cascade. 

Many   Prussian    troops    passed    us.      The 
coachman  seldom  failed  to  say  "  more  thieves  " 
when  he  saw  them  coming.    The  Gendarmes 
C      126      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

are  not  in  better  repute ;  honest  as  a  Gerh- 
darme  is  the  worst  that  can  be  said  of  a  man. 
The  Prussian  waggons  usually  carried  a  spare 
wheel  in  case  of  accidents.  They  embargo 
the  carts  of  the  country  without  ceremony 
and  without  compensation. 

We  halted  at  Ardenne,  a  place  once  famous 
for  its  convent  of  female  Canons,  —  the  most 
aristocratic  estabUshment  of  its  kind.  It  was 
near  a  fabric  of  coarse  porcelain  that  the  horses 
baited,  and  we  drank  the  only  bottle  of  wine 
which  the  house  could  supply,  wishing  there 
had  been  more,  for  it  was  good.  We  had 
brought  fruit  with  us,  and  devoured  bread  and 
butter  and  the  excellent  Limburg  cheese,  here 
called  Herve,  which  has  the  richness  of  Stilton 
with  the  flavour  of  Gruyere.  They  brought  us 
Gruyere  also,  which  we  have  seen  everywhere, 
and  which,  I  conclude,  is  made  everywhere,  as 
being  the  most  approved  kind.  Many  people 
were  employed  m  making  fire-balls ;  they  trod 
the  miicture,  and  the  balls  were  drying  by  the 
roadside. 

We  were  now  entering  upon  a  land  of  vine- 
yards. The  approach  to  Huy  is  imcommonly 
[      127      ] 


JOURNAL 

striking,  —  a  handsome  and  very  large  old 
church  on  the  right  bank,  with  hanging  gar- 
dens near  it,  and  a  high  hill  impending  above ; 
a  bridge  of  several  arches  over  the  Meuse,  and 
on  the  other  side  gardens  and  old  brick  build- 
ings, apparently  convents,  coming  so  close  to 
the  water  as  to  produce  somewhat  of  the  effect 
of  Hindoo  scenery,  such  as  it  appears  in  prints. 
Having  secured  quarters  in  the  best  auberge 
the  place  afforded,  we  crost  the  bridge,  and 
endeavoured  to  reach  the  river  side,  above  the 
town,  that  we  might  get  a  good  view  of  the 
bridge  and  the  church.  But  we  found  our- 
selves in  a  labyrinth  of  narrow  lanes  between 
high  walls,  and  among  buildings  in  various 
stages  of  decay  and  ruin,  the  work  of  the  revo- 
lution. Huy  itself  is  full  of  manufacturers, 
but  this  suburb,  which  had  been  the  residence 
of  the  Religioners  and  the  wealthy,  is  now 
a  complete  Necropolis,  a  place  of  desolation,  a 
deserted  city.  I  never  saw  anything  like  it, 
anything  that  impressed  me  so  mournfully, 
the  desolation  being  recent  enough  to  pro- 
duce this  effect.  In  one  church,  which  seemed 
to  be  entirely  forsaken,  were  many  old  monu- 

C      128      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

ments  built  into  the  outer  wall,  with  rude  bas- 
reliefs,  —  and  inscriptions,  mostly  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

Mr.  Vardon  and  Edith,  having  advanced  a 
little  before  us,  looked  into  the  courtyard  of  a 
large  building,  which  proved  to  be  inhabited ; 
and  they  were  met  by  two  gentlemen.  Mr. 
V.  asked  if  it  were  a  public  building,  and  was 
answered  by  one  of  them  with  some  hauteur 
that  it  was  his  house.  Mr.  V.  then  begged  his 
pardon,  and  apologised  for  having  trespassed, 
saying  he  was  a  stranger.  The  gentleman 
upon  this  demanded  in  the  same  offended 
manner  if  they  were  Germans?  Being  told 
that  we  were  English,  his  tone  inunediately 
changed,  and  he  invited  us  in.  By  this  time 
we  were  come  up.  The  person  with  whom  we 
thus  had  fallen  in  was  a  man  rather  above  the 
middle  stature,  thin,  pale,  and  with  a  melan- 
choly countenance ;  grey  eyes  with  a  slight 
cast,  which  was  not  perceptible  at  first  sight, 
and  a  few  marks  of  the  smallpox.  His  age 
was  forty-five,  and  his  name  as  written  by 
himself  in  my  journal  in  a  remarkably  strong, 
legible  hand,  F.  J.  Onwerx.     He  is  a  native 

C      129      ] 


JOURNAL 

of  Liege.  He  introduced  us  into  a  room  fur- 
nished with  good  French  prints,  and  with  some 
French  books  lying  about  it.  In  an  instant 
he  uncorked  two  bottles  of  white  wine,  which 
he  called  Comet,  of  the  vintage  of  1811,  upon 
which  the  comet  was  supposed  to  have  pro- 
duced a  beneficial  effect.  "We  assured  him 
that  tho'  it  was  five  o'clock  we  had  not  dined, 
and  that  dinner  was  then  preparing  for  us  at 
the  inn,  —  but  excuses  were  of  no  avail :  a 
brimming  glass  for  each  was  poured  out  and 
drank ;  it  was  scarcely  swallowed  before  the 
bumpers  were  replenished,  and  pressed  upon 
us,  as  if  this  form  of  hospitality  were  necessary 
toward  persons  of  our  country  ;  we  could  not 
refuse  without  the  probability  of  appearing 
discourteous,  and  thus  Ladies  and  aU  were 
obliged  to  drink  a  second  and  a  third  bumper, 
emptying  both  bottles. 

M.  Onwerx  then  led  us  into  his  garden,  a 
beautiful  spot  extending  to  the  river,  where  the 
bank  was  walled.  There  was  a  frankness  and 
a  decided  manly  manner  about  him  which  were 
very  interesting.  He  told  us  that  he  had  been 
a  widower  fifteen  years,  and  that  there  was  no 
[      130      ] 


JOURNAL 

happiness  in  this  world  for  him.  Having  been 
bom  and  bred  in  a  Catholic  country,  the  dis- 
gust with  which  that  system  of  villainous  and 
impudent  imposture  filled  him  has  fatally  made 
him  regard  everything  beyond  this  world  as 
doubtful.  He  spoke  with  bitter  severity  of 
the  Prussians,  and  said  they  were  worse  than 
the  French :  he  had  offered  money  to  be  ex- 
empted from  having  soldiers  quartered  upon 
him ;  they  had  taken  it,  and  quartered  men 
upon  him  nevertheless.  And  those  men  had 
plundered  without  mercy  or  shame,  even  to 
drawing  out  screws  from  the  floor.  He  exe- 
crated Buonaparte,  who  had  been  there,  in  this 
house,  and  had  treated  him  with  insolence ;  but 
he  added,  "  I  am  not  a  man  to  crouch  before 
him,  and  I  answered  him  manfully."  This  his 
companion,  who  was  a  much  older  man,  told  us 
also,  and  said  that  Buonaparte  altered  his  man- 
ner when  he  discovered  the  character  of  the 
person  with  whom  he  was  speaking.  He  com- 
plained of  the  manner  in  which  his  country 
had  been  treated :  they  had  been  a  free  and 
an  independent  and  a  happy  people,  he  said, 
and  they  were  transferred  now  to  a  foreigner, 

[      131      ] 


JOURNAL 

like  so  many  cattle.  The  policy  of  England, 
he  said,  was  horrible  :  not  because  it  had  made 
these  countries  a  province  of  England,  but  be- 
cause we  had  let  Buonaparte  loose  from  Elba. 
We  perceived  that  the  treaty  of  Paris  was  too 
advantageous  for  France ;  that  in  a  few  years 
she  would  rival  our  manufactures,  or  exceed 
them,  and  become  dangerous,  if  not  too  powerful 
for  us  ;  and  therefore  we  had  let  this  ferocious 
beast  loose.  Miserably  as  I  express  myself  in 
French,  I  endeavoured  to  show  him  how  impos- 
sible this  was ;  but  the  most  solemn  assevera- 
tions could  make  no  impression  upon  him,  so 
thoroughly  was  he  persuaded  of  the  absurd  no- 
tion ;  and  I  was  really  sorry  for  this,  finding 
him  a  man  of  strong  feeling  and  strong  sense. 

M.  Onwerx  has  two  daughters,  whom  we 
did  not  see.  The  firing  at  Waterloo,  he  told 
us,  was  heard  distinctly  here,  and  made  the 
house  shake.  This  might  easily  be;  but  he 
added,  what  is  very  remarkable,  that  a  friend 
whose  veracity  he  could  not  doubt,  assured  him 
it  had  in  like  manner  been  perceived  at  Amiens, 
forty-three  leagues  from  the  field. 

He  promised  to  call  on  us  to-morrow  after 

C      132      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

breakfast,  and  walk  with  us  to  a  beautiful  place 
up  the  little  river  Hoyoux,  where  his  father- 
in-law,  M.  Delloye,  had  a  manufactory  oifer- 
blanc,  which  I  suppose  is  tin.  He  himself 
manufactures  soap,  and,  I  believe,  paper. 

Our  inn  is  curiously  situated,  being  literally 
upon  the  Hoyoux,  which  runs  imder  the  court- 
yard, and  presently  passes  under  an  odd  bridge 
of  one  arch ;  the  arch  of  course  is  true,  but  the 
ascent  is  so  steep,  continuing  up  to  the  bridge, 
that  for  more  than  half  the  way  it  is  by  a  flight 
of  steps.  A  few  yards  only  beyond,  this  little 
river  falls  into  the  Meuse,  close  by  the  bridge. 
The  fireplace  in  oui*  apartment  is  a  singular 
one ;  a  perpendicular  grate,  with  flues  to  the 
right  and  left,  a  broad  marble  slab  over  it,  and 
over  this  an  oval  window  looking  to  the  bridge, 
the  flues  passing  on  both  sides  of  the  window. 
This  was  more  beautiful  than  convenient,  for 
the  chimney  smoked.  The  frame  of  the  fire- 
place is  brass,  above  it  a  line  of  tiles,  and  then 
the  broad  marble  chimney-piece. 

The  women  here  carry  a  basket  with  a  back 
like  that  of  a  chair,  but  made  of  close  wicker- 
work.     The  back  rises  above  the  bearer's  head, 

[       133      ] 


JOURNAL 

who  carries  it  back  to  back.  The  basket  is 
something  in  this  shape,  ^,  so  that  when  the 
lower  part  is  full,  vegetables  or  whatever  else 
it  contains  may  be  piled  up  to  a  great  height, 
the  bearer  naturally  stooping  in  proportion  to 
the  weight  of  the  load.  It  is  supported  by  a 
strap  across  the  shoulders.  This  basket  is  so 
convenient  for  those  who,  like  Issachar,  bow 
their  shoulders  to  bear,  that  it  is  used  far  and 
wide  over  the  continent. 

We  are  at  the  best  of  two  Inns,  the  sign  of 
the  Helmet,  but  Huy  is  a  place  at  which  few 
travellers  stop,  the  distance  between  Namur 
and  Liege  being  but  a  short  journey.  We 
found,  however,  good  fare,  good  wine,  and  very 
civil  treatment. 

Friday,  6  Oct. 

v/UR  rest  was  disturbed  by  various  noises.  A 
horseman  stopt  at  the  door  after  midnight,  and 
he  and  his  horse,  the  one  calling  and  the  other 
stamping,  as  if  the  horse  understood  and  sec- 
onded the  impatience  of  the  rider,  reminded 
me  of  the  Ghost  on  horseback  in  the  ballad  of 
Lenore.  Prussian  troops  also  were  marching 
[      134      ] 


JOURNAL 

thro' ;  among  them  I  saw  some  lancers  in  the 
morning,  with  little  red  flags  near  the  lance 
point.  The  church  bells  were  very  loud,  fre- 
quent, and  troublesome ;  this  annoyance  alone 
would  have  told  us  that  we  were  in  a  Catholic 
country.  Pewter  is  in  use  here  for  the  wash- 
cum-sallad  hasons,  and  for  certain  other  uten- 
sils. I  slept  under  a  patchwork  quilt ;  this 
sort  of  industrious  economy  is  probably  found 
wherever  printed  calicoes  are  worn. 

They  brought  us  grapes  and  Gruyere  cheese 
at  breakfast.  The  butter  was  marked  with  the 
I.  H.  S.,  —  a  mark  of  devotion  I  believe,  —  not 
the  initials  of  the  vendor.  M.  Onwerx  called 
at  the  time  appointed,  and  took  us  first  to  the 
Church,  under  an  arch  which  has  some  curi- 
ous old  sculpture  representing  the  Nativity. 
The  great  tower,  having  been  much  injured  to- 
wards the  bottom  by  lightning  a  few  years  ago, 
was  propt,  while  the  lower  part  was  repaired, 
and  in  fact  rebuilt,  a  work  of  extraordinary 
skill.  This  induced  me  to  tell  him  of  Mr. 
Edgeworth's  exploit,  who  built  a  cast-iron 
steeple  on  the  ground,  and  raised  it  in  one 
piece.  I  found  the  names  of  Edgeworth  and 
C      135      ] 


JOURNAL 

his  daughter  well  known,  and  their  connection 
with  Switzerland. 

The  part  of  the  town  thro'  which  we  past 
is  very  picturesque  from  the  number  of  bridges 
and  ruins ;  the  latter  are  more  probably  the 
work  of  revolution  than  of  war,  tho'  of  war 
Huy  in  former  times  has  had  its  full  share. 
M.  Delloyes'  house  is  about  three  miles  dis- 
tant, up  the  valley,  and  a  more  truly  delicious 
valley  (could  all  vestiges  of  manufactures  be 
removed)  I  have  seldom  seen.  Beautiful  it 
must  indeed  be  to  obtain  this  praise  from  one 
who  resides  at  Keswick  and  has  past  a  sum- 
mer at  Cintra.  The  hills  on  either  side  I  guess 
to  be  about  as  high  as  the  Hatteril  Hills  (or 
Black  Mountain)  at  Lautony.  A  few  years 
ago  they  were  clothed  with  wood,  but  the 
forges  have  stript  them.  However,  the  im- 
derwood  is  springing  up,  and  the  valley  is  so 
rich  that  we  scarcely  felt  the  devastation  of 
the  hills  as  an  injury.  There  are  many  com- 
fortable cottages,  which  M.  Onwerx  with  evi- 
dent pleasure  told  us  belonged  to  little  land- 
holders. The  vale  is  beautifully  green ;  it 
abounds  with  orchards ;  large  walnut  and  horse- 
[      136      ] 


JOURNAL 

chestnut  trees  are  growing  in  the  fields ;  and 
the  little  river,  before  it  reaches  the  works 
which  block  and  defile  the  latter  part  of  its 
channel,  reminded  me  of  our  Cumberland 
streams  in  the  quiet  part  of  their  course, 
where  they  flow  along  level  ground.  The  vale, 
he  said,  continued  thus  beautiful  for  some 
twelve  miles  to  its  head.  The  waiter  at  the 
inn  had  told  us  that  the  sources  of  the  river 
at  that  distance  were  well  worth  visiting. 

The  mother-in-law  of  M.  Onwerx  had  been 
educated  in  an  English  Nunnery  at  Liege,  but 
long  disuse  had  made  her  unwilling  or  unable 
to  speak  English,  tho'  she  still  understood  it. 
They  gave  us  cakes  and  Muscat  wine.  The 
house  had  all  marks  of  comfort  and  elegance 
and  opulence  about  it;  none  of  ostentation. 
The  garden  was  well  laid  out ;  that  is,  nothing 
had  been  done  there  to  injure  nature.  A  round 
basin  of  water,  with  a  spouting  fountain  in 
the  middle,  is  not  to  be  complained  of ;  they 
who  object  to  the  sight  of  art  thus  poorly  and 
feebly  employed  may  look  another  way,  and 
be  pleased  with  the  soimd. 

M.  Delloyes'  works  are  upon  a  great  scale. 
[      137      ] 


JOURNAL 

I  was  asked  if  we  had  any  wheels  so  large  in 
England ;  and  these  were  large  enough  to  jus- 
tify the  question  from  one  who  had  never  been 
there.  This  is  the  first  manufactory  of  tin 
which  was  established  in  these  parts,  and  Buo- 
naparte had  given  money  towards  setting  it 
up.  The  rest  of  the  family  I  found  had  none 
of  that  just  and  well-founded  detestation  of 
this  tyrant  which  M.  Onwerx  exprest.  One 
of  the  Ladies  was  silent  when  I  said  that  he 
ought  to  have  been  put  to  death ;  another  ob- 
served to  Mrs.  Vardon  that  he  had  done  much 
good  as  well  as  much  evil. 

The  conversation  which  I  had  with  M.  On- 
werx upon  this  walk  was  very  interesting. 
Liege,  he  said,  had  been  a  free  country.  The 
Prince  Bishop  was  elective ;  it  was  a  dignity 
to  which  any  man  might  aspire.  There  were 
two  and  twenty  towns  in  the  Bishoprick,  each 
sending  its  deputy  to  preserve  the  charter  of 
their  freedom,  for  such  a  charter  they  had, 
like  our  Magna  Charta,  —  many  centuries  old. 
He  himself,  if  he  had  been  aggrieved  by  the 
Prince  Bishop,  might  have  brought  an  action 
against  him,  and  obtained  redress.    There  were 

[      138      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

no  delays  of  justice ;  a  cause  was  decided  in 
twenty-four  hours,  or  in  thirty-six  at  the  far- 
thest. Now,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  justice. 
Before  the  Revolution  they  had  only  been  too 
happy.  He  was  a  man  who  had  entered  into 
the  first  feelings  of  the  Revolution  with  all  the 
ardour  of  youth,  and  bitterly  lamented  its  ex- 
cesses and  its  consequences.  What  he  now  de- 
sired was  the  restoration  of  the  old  system,  that 
is,  that  Liege  should  again  be  free  and  indepen- 
dent under  its  old  institutions ;  for  it  was  his 
opinion  that  small  states  were  those  in  which  the 
people  had  been  happiest,  and  wherein  there  was 
most  encouragement  for  literature  and  the 
arts.  He  admired  the  English,  but  adhered  to 
his  persuasion  that  they  had  purposely  let 
Buonaparte  loose,  else,  he  said,  why  had  not 
the  man  been  punished  who  suffered  him  to 
escape?  A  dreadful  vengeance,  he  thought, 
would  overtake  the  Prussians.  They  were  retal- 
iating what  they  had  suffered,  and  this  would 
draw  on  more  retaliation,  evil  producing  evil. 
But  he  did  not  disguise  his  hope  that  they 
might  be  driven  out  of  France.  They  had  be- 
haved with  excessive  insolence  at  M.  Delloyes'. 
[      139      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

The  best  things  which  the  house  afforded  had 
been  set  before  them,  and  they  said  the  wine 
might  be  good  enough  to  wash  their  feet  in, 
but  not  to  drink. 

We  parted  with  much  good-will  toward  each 
other,  and  having  a  copy  of  "  Roderick,"  which 
I  meant  to  have  carried  to  Manheim  for  my 
Uncle's  friend  M.  Osserwald,  if  we  had  pro- 
ceeded so  far,  I  left  it  with  him. 

We  set  off  from  Huy  at  noon,  well  pleased 
with  our  adventures  there,  erost  the  bridge, 
and  proceeded  along  the  left  bank  of  the  river. 
More  beautiful  scenes  than  those  of  yesterday 
had  been  promised  us;  they  were  less  so,  but  still 
it  is  a  fine  and  interesting  country.  The  views 
of  Huy  are  very  striking,  tho'  inferior  to  those 
on  the  other  approach.  Red  cliffs — the  red- 
dest I  ever  saw ;  broken  rocks,  with  creepers  in 
great  luxuriance,  and  many  picturesque  build- 
ings. The  river  frequently  forms  islands  in  its 
course.  The  vale  widened  as  we  advanced,  los- 
ing thereby  in  beauty.  We  past  almost  under 
a  very  remarkable  chateau,  a  large  square  build- 
ing upon  the  brow  of  a  rock  which  is  precipitous 
on  three  sides,  and  the  garden-wall  appeared 
[      140      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  ly 

as  if  it  were  on  the  very  brink  of  the  preci- 
pice. At  a  village  near  we  halted,  and  had 
good  bread,  cheese,  butter,  and  wine,  all  good 
things,  and  which  seem  in  these  countries 
everywhere  to  be  good  in  their  kind.  Here  and 
everywhere  we  heard  the  same  complaint  of  the 
Prussians.  Indeed,  we  saw  something  of  their 
insolence  upon  this  stage  ;  for  we  met  a  party 
of  their  soldiers,  a  carriage  with  two  gentle- 
men and  ladies  of  the  country  had  come  up 
with  them,  and  these  Prussians  would  not  allow 
them  to  drive  by,  but  insisted  upon  their  fol- 
lowing patiently  and  waiting  upon  their  foot 
pace. 

As  we  approached  Liege  we  saw  nothing 
but  filth  and  poverty,  and  the  City  itself  pre- 
sented nothing  inviting  in  its  appearance.  The 
Cathedral  was  destroyed  by  the  Revolutionists, 
in  their  brutal  love  of  destruction.  We  had 
been  recommended  from  Namur  to  the  Aigle 
Noir,  an  Inn  not  in  a  good  situation,  and  suf- 
ficiently uninviting  in  its  external.  Some  dis- 
comfort was  apprehended,  and  some  discontent 
exprest,  when  we  were  shown  into  the  public 
room,  where  there  was  one  man  at  dinner,  and 

[       141       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

a  strong  odour  of  tobacco.  They  told  us  we 
should  soon  have  the  room  to  ourselves,  and 
that  the  folding-doors  between  it  and  the  bar 
should  be  shut  to  secure  our  privacy.  Pre- 
sently, however,  another  person  came  in  to  din- 
ner. I  saw  now  that  the  bar  part  of  the  room 
would  fall  to  our  lot,  and  calling  there  for  pen, 
ink,  and  paper,  sate  down  and  wrote  to  John 
May,  while  a  woman  servant  washed  the 
hearth  and  made  a  fire  for  us.  The  chimney- 
piece  was  tiled;  the  hearth  tessellated  with 
little  bricks  about  two  inches  long  and  half  an 
inch  wide ;  a  brazen  plate,  like  a  waiter,  on  an 
iron  stem,  was  the  screen.  By  the  time  I  had 
finished  my  letter  the  table  was  spread,  and 
we  had  an  excellent  dinner,  with  good  wine. 

Saturday,  7  Oct. 

Jln  all  the  inns  we  have  found  a  want  of 
cleanhness  in  the  bedroom  floors  and  a  want 
of  bedside  carpets.  Here  we  had  cigars  laid 
upon  the  bedroom  table  —  being  I  suppose  as 
necessary  for  a  German  as  his  night-cap. 

The  windows  in  Liege  and  its  vicinity  are 
mostly  square  and  small.     The  city  displays 

[      1^     ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

an  appearance  of  activity  and  trade,  tho'  its 
population  has  been  diminished  by  the  loss  of 
15,000  inhabitants  since  the  revolution.  It 
still  contains  50,000.  In  passing  thro'  the 
suburbs  yesterday  we  observed  that  a  very 
great  number  of  the  houses  were  to  be  let. 
The  Commissionaire  who  guided  me  when  I 
went  to  put  my  letter  in  the  Post  Office  said 
that  Buonaparte  has  many  partizans  here. 
The  Post  Office  is  inconveniently  situated  at 
one  end  of  the  city  instead  of  in  the  middle : 
to  avoid  a  long  circuit  in  getting  there  we 
crost  the  nearly  dry  channel  of  one  of  the 
many  branches  with  which  the  place  is  inter- 
sected by  the  Meuse,  a  boat  being  laid  across 
the  channel,  and  reaching  from  one  bank  to 
the  other,  and  for  the  use  of  this  sort  of 
bridge  a  small  copper  coin  was  paid.  Among 
the  signs  I  noticed  that  of  the  S.  Esprit  at  a 
cabaret :  the  Catholicks  appear  not  to  be  sen- 
sible of  any  irreverence  in  the  use  of  such 
names  and  symbols.  Except  at  Bristol  fair 
I  never  saw  so  much  gingerbread  in  any  one 
day  as  in  going  thro'  this  city ;  it  must  surely 
be  commonly  in  use  as  food,  not  merely  as 

C       143       ] 


JOURNAL 

a  luxury  for  children.  The  wetness  of  the 
morning  prevented  our  party  from  going  over 
this  dirty  city ;  but  we  had  driven  thro'  great 
part  of  it  the  preceding  evening,  and  my  walk 
to  the  Post  Office  showed  me  more.  Beggars 
have  become  more  numerous  since  we  entered 
the  Pais  de  Liege.  There  is  neither  Flemish 
comfort  here  nor  Flemish  cleanliness :  both 
have  been  lessening  all  the  way  from  Bruges, 
and  both  have  now  disappeared.  —  A  few  old 
and  poor  persons  wear  very  broad  beaver  hats, 
the  last  remains  of  old  costvune.  The  houses 
about  the  place  are  generally  of  a  deep  red 
colour. 

One  roguery  I  must  notice,  not  as  peculiar 
to  Liege,  for  we  have  observed  it  everywhere. 
The  bottles  are  manufactured  in  so  rascally  a 
shape  that  the  bulging  bottom  defrauds  you 
nearly  of  one  third  of  what  the  bottle  appears 
to  hold. 

As  we  looked  back  upon  Liege,  the  hop- 
poles  which  were  very  numerous  in  the  adjoin- 
ing country,  and  were  now  pitched  together  as 
thickly  as  the  tents  of  an  army,  combined  in 
a  most  singular  manner  with  the  steeples.  A 
[      144      ] 


JOURNAL 

mile  or  two  off  we  crost  the  narrowest  bridge 
which  I  ever  saw  for  carriages,  over  a  stream, 
which,  coming  from  an  opposite  direction  to 
the  Meuse,  falls  into  it,  close  by  this  bridge. 
From  thence  we  ascended  a  very  long,  straight, 
paved  road,  which  was  a  tremendous  pull  for 
the  horses.  The  country  here  is  beautiful,  re- 
minding me  of  the  Monmouthshire  scenery, 
not  in  the  mountainous  but  hilly  parts  of  that 
fine  county;  and  the  weather,  tho'  the  rain 
sometimes  melted  into  mist  and  the  mist  some- 
times dissolved  in  rain,  did  not  materially  ob- 
scure the  prospect  at  any  time.  Near  the  city 
the  roadside  beggars  were  very  numerous ; 
one  man,  who  was  placed  in  a  chair  beside  the 
way  to  excite  charity,  gave  me  a  painful  idea 
of  the  demoniacks  in  Scripture.  Women 
were  threshing  in  the  bam ;  they  use  a  flail 
shorter  than  the  English  one,  especially  in  the 
striking  part.  A  man  was  picking  up  manure 
from  the  road,  —  in  a  basket,  —  a  proof,  at 
least,  that  nothing  is  allowed  to  be  lost  here. 
The  road  is  for  the  most  part  hUly,  and  some- 
times it  passes  over  the  first  wastes  or  com- 
mons that  we  have  seen. 

[       145      J 


JOURNAL 

We  halted  at  Theux,  at  a  wretched  house, 
where  the  only  room  in  which  we  could  be  re- 
ceived was  wet.  The  floor  was  composed  of 
bricks,  laid  in  large  square  pannels  within  a 
black  framing,  —  no  doubt,  of  that  black  mar- 
ble for  which  this  place  is  celebrated ;  it  is 
said  to  be  the  finest  in  Europe,  and  to  take  a 
polish  as  fine  as  glass.  There  were  marks  of 
antiquity  about  the  house ;  some  fragments 
which  had  been  built  upon  on  the  chimney 
bore  the  date  of  1592,  and  a  fragment  in  the 
yard  that  of  1565.  "We  had  excellent  bread 
and  butter  here,  and  the  fine  Herve  cheese  — 
upon  which  we  dined  heartily  and  himgrily,  not 
knowing  that  we  were  scarcely  six  miles  from 
Spa.  Going  out  of  the  town  you  come  to  a 
building  with  this  inscription,  Wauxhall  cham- 
petre.  About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off  is  a 
castle  on  the  left,  appearing  like  a  square  of 
brick-work  without  any  loopholes.  It  shows 
well,  with  a  brook  and  bridge  and  village  in 
the  foreground,  and  we  had  seen  it  at  a  con- 
siderable distance.  The  country  all  the  way  to 
Spa  is  very  pleasing,  still  of  the  tamer  Mon- 
mouthshire character,  —  heights  covered  with 

C      14«      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

brushwood,  and  streams  of  clear  water,  much 
that  is  soothing  and  picturesque,  nothing  that 
approaches  to  sublimity. 

We  found  at  the  Hotel  de  Prince  d'Orange 
all  the  accommodation  to  be  expected  at  a 
place  of  fashionable  resort,  —  a  fine  spacious 
apartment,  a  chandelier  in  the  middle,  a  noble 
wood  fire,  tables  with  marble  slabs,  and  old 
screens  of  the  oldest  fashion,  large  and  incon- 
venient; the  hearth  tessellated  as  at  Liege; 
good  beds,  but  here  and  everywhere  else  they 
seem  intended  only  for  single  persons,  as  if 
married  ones  never  slept  together. 

Sunday,  8  Oct. 

J.  ms  is  a  little,  quiet  place,  in  that  respect 
resembling  Tunbridge  Wells.  One  of  the 
springs  is  in  the  town,  and  these  verses  have 
been  inscribed  over  it  since  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  who  is  here  at  present,  arrived,  — 

L'onvre  mon  sein  salubre  au  fils  de  la  patrie 
£t  desire  ardemment  de  prolonger  sa  vie. 

There  are  three  other  springs.     Two  are  at 

the  same  place,  about  a  mile  and  half  from 

[      147      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

the  town :  both  are  strong  chalybeates,  tho' 
one  is  stronger  than  the  other,  and  in  the 
strongest  you  see  bubbles  rise.  Close  by  the 
otiier  is  a  footstep  cut  in  stone,  some  four  or 
five  inches  deep,  with  these  words  beside  it, 
—  he  Pied  de  St.  R.  Not  knowing  who  the 
Saint  might  be,  but  not  doubting  that  his 
footstep  had  been  imprinted  there  for  some 
good  purpose,  I  enquired  the  meaning,  and 
was  informed  that  Ladies  who  desired  to  be- 
come fruitful  were  to  set  a  foot  in  it,  and 
obtain  their  wish  thro'  the  merits  of  St.  Re- 
made. Mrs.  Vardon  had  already  been  trying 
whether  the  footstep  fitted  her.  Away  I  went 
to  Edith,  led  her  there,  and  begged  her  to 
set  her  foot  in  the  impression,  which  my  Gov- 
erness did ;  and  when  we  told  her  the  legend, 
she  declared  that  she  never  again  would  do 
anything  I  desired.  Koster  also,  before  he 
heard  of  the  spell,  tried  his  foot,  and  we  had 
much  laughing  about  the  consequences.  He 
had  stood  in  the  Saint's  shoes,  we  said,  but  it 
might  not  be  so  pleasant  some  time  hence  to 
stand  in  his  ;  and  we  wished  him  well  thro'  it. 
The  third  spring,  which  contains  some  sul- 
[       148      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

phur,  is  a  mile  and  half  from  these,  and  at  the 
same  distance  from  the  town ;  the  woods  about 
this  have  not  been  cut  down,  and  the  place 
is  sequestered  and  beautiful.  A  poor  woman 
here  presented  a  petition  to  us  with  a  mourn- 
ful story,  which  the  people  of  the  weU  assured 
us  was  true.  She  had  offered  it  to  the  Prince's 
attendants  (for  he  comes  every  day  to  drink 
this  water),  and  they  told  her  he  had  no  money 
and  could  give  to  no  one.  Mrs.  Vardon  ex- 
plained to  her  that  this  was  the  answer  of  the 
attendants,  not  of  the  Prince  himself.  It  is 
indeed  his  obvious  policy  to  acquire  all  the 
popularity  he  can,  and  popularity  is  always  to 
be  cheaply  bought  by  Princes  ;  a  little  money 
goes  a  great  way  in  purchasing  it.  If  he  does 
not  make  hay  while  the  sun  shines,  he  will 
never  get  in  his  harvest. 

Spa  has  suffered  much  since  the  days  before 
the  Revolution,  when  it  was  —  perhaps  —  the 
most  fashionable  place  of  resort  in  Europe. 
The  woods  aU  around  it  are  gone,  except  the 
small  part  by  the  sulphur  spring.  Eight  years 
ago  one  hundred  and  eighty  houses  were  de- 
stroyed by  an  accidental  fire  ;  an  inundation 

[       149       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

did  further  mischief,  and  last  year  the  Prus- 
sians bivouacqued  here.  The  Master  of  our 
hotel  speaks  English.  His  wife,  who  had 
borne  up  against  repeated  calamities,  died 
about  six  weeks  ago  broken-hearted  by  mis- 
fortunes. Their  whole  hopes  had  been  upon 
this  season ;  the  return  of  Buonaparte  from 
Elba  made  her  believe  there  would  be  no  end 
to  their  troubles,  and  she  sunk  imder  them. 
The  poor  man  is  in  the  deepest  dejection,  and 
speaks  of  his  children,  especially  of  a  babe 
who  is  only  a  few  months  old,  with  great 
feeling. 

One  of  the  Vauxhalls  here  has  the  whole 
of  the  upper  part  cased  in  wood  to  preserve  it 
from  the  weather,  —  a  very  large  house  in 
a  packing-case.  The  great  ambition  of  the 
boys  seems  to  be  to  crack  the  whip,  like  the 
postillions ;  they  were  emulously  practising  it, 
one  feUow  with  so  much  exertion  that  he  threw 
himself  down  with  the  effort.  We  were  sere- 
naded here  as  at  Brussels,  and  with  good  music 
and  singing.  A  blind  woman  came  begging 
into  our  room  and  told  us  she  was  the  person 
who  had  given  occasion  to  Madame  Genlis' 

[      150      ] 


JOURNAL 

story,  —  a  story  which  we  were  supposed  to 
know.  She  had  been  in  England,  she  said, 
where  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  introduced 
her  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  he  gave  her  two 
guineas.  She  now  subsisted  upon  the  bounty 
of  the  English,  and  kept  a  little  orphan  girl 
to  guide  her  about.  Crayfish  are  very  abun- 
dant here,  —  a  provoking  sort  of  food,  which 
promises  so  much  more  than  it  affords. 

Monday,  9  Oct. 

J.  0-DAY  there  was  a  horse-race  patronised  by 
the  Prince.  It  was  on  the  heights  about  a  mile 
and  half  from  the  town,  and  certainly  there 
never  was  worse  racing;  but  the  scene  was 
chearful,  and^  the  people  seemed  very  happy 
and  thoroughly  delighted,  in  spite  of  a  pierc- 
ing northeast  wind.  Blue  was  the  predomi- 
nant colour,  the  greater  part  of  the  spectators 
being  in  their  frocks.  Next  door  to  our  hotel 
is  a  large  house,  built  for  a  gambling-house 
and  for  dancing.  We  were  invited  to  a  ball 
there,  but  did  not  go.  A  woman  called  for  our 
names,  which  we  afterwards  found  were  to  be 
printed  in  the  list  of  visitors  to  Spa.   House 

C       151       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

rent  is  cheap  here,  a  good  one  only  from 
two  hundred  to  three  hundred  francs  per 
annum. 

Here  I  bought  Rennefort's  Travels,  which, 
under  the  absurd  title  of  "  Histoire  des  Indes 
Orientales,"  contains  a  great  deal  about  Mad- 
agascar, something  about  Brazil,  and  a  few 
curious  notes  concerning  England. 

The  fruit  and  the  wine  appeared  to  have  dis- 
agreed with  me  here,  as  they  did  at  Brussels. 
The  effect  for  a  night  and  half  a  day  was 
violent ;  and  I  think  the  Eau  de  Cologne, 
which  I  took  by  Mrs.  Vardon's  advice,  tended 
to  stop  the  complaint.  But  it  was  proper  to 
abstain  from  anything  that  might  renew  it; 
which  as  my  inclination  for  both  had  suffered 
no  abatement  made  me  talk  of  describing  my 
situation  at  the  dinner-table  as  the  Temptation 
of  St.  Robert. 

Tuesday,  10  Oct. 

Our  coachmen  dissuaded  us  from  attempting 
to  reach  Aix-la-ChapeUe  in  one  day  ;  the  dis- 
tance, they  said,  was  ten  strong  leagues,  and 
the  road  bad  ;  and  they  assured  us  that  there 
L      152      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

was  a  good  Inn  at  Verviers,  four  leagues  on 
the  way. 

Owing  to  this  advice,  and  to  some  misman- 
agement about  our  linen,  we  did  not  start  till 
noon.  We  soon  rolled  over  the  good  road  back 
as  far  as  Theux,  where  being  told  that  we  had 
plenty  of  day  before  us,  we  went  up  to  examine 
Franchimont  Castle,  which  we  had  only  seen 
from  the  road.  The  place  is  often  mentioned 
in  the  French  Memoirs,  and  if  I  am  not 
mistaken  is  the  scene  of  an  adventure  with 
robbers  or  coiners  which  is  said  to  have  hap- 
pened to  Marshal  Saxe.  It  was  ruined  no 
longer  ago  than  the  Revolution,  when  a  pas- 
sion for  destrojdng  whatever  was  ancient  and 
venerable  seems  to  have  possessed  the  hearts 
of  the  people.  The  ruins  are  extensive,  but 
less  picturesque  than  any  which  I  ever  saw 
before,  or  than  I  should  have  thought  possible 
for  so  large  a  mass.  We  saw  some  snail  shells 
here,  of  a  species  larger  than  any  in  England, 
and  a  yellow  flower,  with  which  none  of  us 
were  acquainted,  we  gathered  here.  It  was  very 
pretty  and  sweet. 

From  hence  we  turned  aside  by  a  wretched 
[      153      ] 


J  O  U  B  X  A  L 

road  to  Verviers  up  a  long  and  most  wearying 
hill,  and  then  down  it  into  the  fertile  valley 
wherein  the  town  stands.  It  is  a  flourishing 
place,  containing  ten  thousand  inhabitants ;  and 
its  manufactures  of  cloth  and  kersymere  have 
the  reputation  of  being  the  best  in  Europe. 
Teazles  grow  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  mas- 
ter of  the  Hotel  at  Spa  advised  us  to  drive  to 
the  sign  of  the  Emperor ;  the  house  was  dirty, 
the  mistress  received  us  with  the  utmost  in- 
civility, and  the  beds  were  neither  enough  in 
number,  nor  inviting  in  appearance  if  they 
had.  We  tried  our  fortune,  therefore,  at  an- 
other inn,  to  which  the  coachman  would  fain 
have  taken  us  at  first ;  but  we  had  been  as- 
sured that  it  was  only  part  of  a  large  build- 
ing, the  other  part  of  which  was  used  as  a 
manufactory  noisy  enough  to  keep  us  awake 
the  whole  night.  Upon  enquiring  here  we 
found  that  an  English  family  from  Spa  had 
arrived  before  us  and  engaged  all  the  beds 
except  two;  our  party  required  eight.  The 
avhergiste  was  exceedingly  civil  and  recom- 
mended us  to  proceed  to  Batisse,  and  if,  as 
she  thought  it  would  prove,  we  could  not  be 
[      164      ] 


JOURNAL 

lodged  at  the  Post  House  there,  go  then  to 
Herve,  which  was  only  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
out  of  our  way.  The  grumpy  coachman 
grumbled,  but  could  neither  help  himself  nor 
us.  Henri,  as  usual,  took  things  contentedly ; 
and  haying  lost  half  an  hour  in  these  fruitless 
attempts  to  establish  ourselves  for  the  night, 
we  proceeded  two  leagues  to  Batisse ;  the  trial 
there  was  in  vain,  and  we  turned  aside  to 
Herve,  where  we  arrived  about  six  o'clock, 
dinnerless  and  not  a  little  apprehensive  as  to 
obtaining  quarters  in  so  impromising  a  little 
town.  Room,  however,  was  promised  with 
some  makeshifts ;  we  found  a  very  civil  land- 
lady, and  sate  down  to  dinner  at  seven.  But 
we  had  left  French  cookery  behind  us,  and 
perceived  to  our  sorrow  that  we  were  now  in 
a  land  of  grease. 

When  we  had  been  in  the  house  about  two 
hours,  the  Prussian  commandant  of  the  town 
came  in,  and  calling  for  the  Hostess,  asked 
her  if  she  had  forgotten  the  law  which  required 
her  always  without  delay  to  communicate  an 
account  of  all  strangers  who  arrived  at  her 
Inn?  For  this  first  time,  said  he,  I  remind 
[      156      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

you  of  it.  The  second  time  I  shall  reprimand. 
The  third  I  shall  punish.  He  then  turned  to 
us  and  demanded  our  passports.  To  us  he 
deported  himself  with  great  courtesy,  even 
winningly  so,  a  manner  which  was  at  once  con- 
ciliating and  dignified  being  aided  by  a  fine 
countenance.  But  he  came  in  followed  by  two 
gens  d  ^armes^  and  if  we  had  been  of  any  other 
nation,  our  treatment  perhaps  might  not  have 
been  so  satisfactory.  The  Hostess  said  it  was 
the  first  time  he  had  ever  entered  her  house  ; 
in  the  hurry  and  perhaps  the  pleasure  of  hav- 
ing unexpectedly  so  large  a  party  to  provide 
for,  she  had  neglected  to  conform  to  a  precau- 
tion which  is  by  no  means  unnecessary  in  these 
parts  at  this  time.  The  poor  woman  was  very 
attentive  and  obliging,  desirous  of  accommo- 
dating us  in  the  best  manner  she  could.  She 
spoke  with  bitterness  of  the  French  tyranny 
and  its  ejffects ;  but  observed  that  the  Prussian 
frontiers  were  too  near,  and  that  the  Bhine 
would  be  the  proper  boundary. 

The  public  room  in  the  uncivil  woman's  inn 
at  Verviers  was  heated  by  a  stove,  being  the 
first  which  we  had  seen  except  in  kitchens. 
[      156      ] 


JOURNAL 

At  Herve  we  found  the  same  symptom  of  our 
approach  to  Germany,  and  whatever  may  be 
the  advantage  of  thus  dijBfusing  the  heat  over 
the  whole  room,  we  all  disliked  the  oppressive 
sensation  which  it  produced.  To  say  nothing 
of  the  life  and  motion  and  beauty  of  an  Eng- 
lish fire,  there  is  the  great  objection  to  the 
stove  that  when  you  enter  the  room,  and  re- 
quire to  be  warmed,  it  heats  the  face  too  much 
and  the  feet  too  little. 

An  insulated  spiral  staircase  of  dark  brown 
wood  fronted  us  as  we  entered  the  house, 
having  a  door  at  the  bottom  which  led  to  the 
cellar.  The  chairs  are  wooden,  and  of  a  fash- 
ion rather  old  than  foreign,  but  the  round 
knobs  on  the  crossbars  below  are  polished 
with  black  lead.  The  beds  were  of  German 
fashion,  having  instead  of  blanket  or  counter- 
pane a  mattrass  about  four  feet  square  for  a 
covering.  The  pannels  of  Mrs.  Vardon's  door 
are  painted  with  pictures  most  ludicrously  bad, 
representing  an  irresistible  gentleman  courting 
an  incomparable  lady,  both  in  full  dress. 

I  was  in  bed  when  I  was  alarmed  by  the 
voice  of  William,  crying  in  great  distress  from 
[      167      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

the  upper  story, "  Mary,  Mary,  send  Mr.  Koster 
here!  send  Mr.  Koster  here  directly!  The 
Coachmen  are  getting  into  the  gentlemen's 
beds,  and  I  can't  make  them  understand  me." 
It  had  been  arranged  that  William  should 
sleep  in  the  same  room  with  Koster  and  Mr. 
Nash,  there  being  no  other  place.  Accord- 
ingly he  had  gone  to  bed  and  fallen  asleep,  but 
happening  to  open  his  eyes  on  hearing  some 
stir  in  the  chamber,  to  his  utter  astonishment 
he  saw  the  two  coachmen  undressing  them- 
selves, and  about  to  take  possession.  Up  ran 
Mr.  Nash  and  Senhor  Henrique  at  the  outcry, 
hardly  able  to  claim  their  beds  for  laughing  at 
the  circimistance  —  and  the  scene.  The  coach- 
men, when  they  discovered  their  mistake,  were 
equally  amused ;  the  whole  party  having  heard 
the  uproar  joined  in  the  laugh,  and  we  never 
went  to  rest  more  merrily  than  at  Herve. 
Nescia  mens  hominum. 

For  the  only  time  during  the  journey  Edith 
May  had  not  been  lodged  in  the  same  room 
with  us.  The  beds  in  our  chamber  would  only 
hold  one  person  each.  Mary  had  a  larger, 
and  Edith  therefore  was  to  sleep  with  her. 
[      158      ] 


JOURNAL 

The  child  had  a  miserable  night,  owing  to  a 
sore  throat,  which  had  not  been  perceived  be- 
fore, but  which  was  doubtless  occasioned  by 
exposure  to  the  sharp  wind  at  the  Spa  races, 
and  probably  aggravated  by  the  discomfort  of 
the  bed ;  for  it  is  impossible  for  any  person  to 
sleep  between  two  beds  or  mattrasses  unless 
they  have  been  used  to  it ;  and  all  of  us,  not 
having  learnt  to  sleep  in  the  German  fashion, 
found  ourselves  repeatedly  without  any  cover- 
ing during  the  night.  She  was,  owing  to  this 
cause,  exposed  alternately  to  heat  and  cold, 
and  obtained  no  rest.  Being  accustomed  to 
seeing  the  tonsils  of  all  my  children  frequently 
swoln  without  producing  any  inconvenience,  I 
was  not  alarmed,  and  strolled  into  the  town 
before  breakfast  with  an  easy  and  unappre- 
hensive mind.  We  found  a  good  church  in- 
ternally, tho'  of  little  outward  beauty,  and  we 
saw  a  pig  fastened  by  one  leg  to  a  stake  in 
the  street,  and  presently  heard  unequivocal 
proofs  that  they  were  killing  him  there. 
Here  and  at  Verviers  we  observed  the  whole 
preparation  of  the  HouilUy  as  coal  of  this 
kind  is  called :  men  tread  it  Uke  mortar,  and 
[      169      ] 


JOURNAL 

women  make  it  into  rolls  or  loaves  with  their 
hands ;  it  is  put  into  the  stove  with  a  trowel 
when  the  hands  axe  not  used  instead.  There 
were  several  carts  full  of  the  Herve  or  Lim- 
bourg  cheese  in  the  town,  and  you  might  nose 
them  at  a  considerable  distance.  These  cheese, 
as  abominable  in  smell  as  they  are  excellent 
in  flavour,  are  made  in  the  shape  and  size  of 
ordinary  bricks  and  packed  in  the  carts  very 
nicely  upon  straw. 

Eeturning  to  the  inn,  I  found  that  Edith 
had  much  fever,  and  that  her  throat  was  fright- 
fully swoln.  We  were  between  five  and  six 
leagues  from  Aix-larChapelle,  and  thither  it 
was  necessary  to  proceed ;  for  as  to  remaining 
where  we  were  it  was  impossible,  there  were 
neither  accommodations  for  sickness,  nor  medi- 
cal aid  if  it  should  be  needed.  I  went  out 
again,  looked  for  a  Stag's  Horns  (the  sign 
over  an  Apothecary's  door  in  these  countries), 
and  bought  volatile  spirit  of  ammonia,  the 
knowledge  of  a  medical  term  proving  for  once 
in  my  life  of  some  use.  But  the  appearance 
of  the  Apothecary  made  me  shudder  to  think 
how  I  should  have  felt  if  it  had  been  necessary 
[       160       ] 


JOURNAL. 

to  call  him  in  and  rely  upon  him.  This  was 
applied ;  the  child  had  been  sick  after  taking 
some  Eau  de  Cologne ;  she  appeared  to  rally ; 
we  set  off  and  the  air  seemed  at  first  to  revive 
her.  But  it  soon  became  expedient  to  remove 
her  to  the  close  carriage,  and  by  the  time  we 
reached  Aix-la-Chapelle  she  was  very  ill. 

The  country  is  one  of  the  richest  I  ever  saw, 
compleatly  spotted  with  villages  and  single 
houses.  In  richness  and  woodiness  it  resem- 
bles the  best  parts  of  Kent  or  Herefordshire. 
Picturesque  it  is  not ;  and  its  features  are  too 
even  to  be  beautiful ;  but  it  bears  abundant 
marks  of  industry,  activity,  and  of  a  thriving 
population.  It  improved  in  beauty  as  we  drew 
nearer  Aix.  We  past  one  pleasant  country- 
house,  which  had  a  series  of  fish-ponds  belong- 
ing to  it,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  road.  The 
carts  (for  they  are  upon  two  wheels)  seem  to 
be  preposterously  long ;  they  are  very  neatly 
covered  with  cloth  when  the  goods  require 
cover.  Walking  up  a  long  hiU  I  observed  a 
great  number  of  pansies  entirely  yellow ;  the 
only  place  where  I  remember  them  growing 
wild  in  England  is  at  Busselton,  near  St.  Hel- 

[      161      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

ens,  Auckland.  I  know  not  wky  it  is  tkat  local 
recollections  are  so  vividly  recalled  by  the  sight 
of  flowers  and  by  odours ;  but,  according  to 
my  experience,  nothing  makes  the  strings  of 
memory  vibrate  so  finely.  The  Belgian  Cus- 
tom House  is  near  the  boundary,  and  after  a 
few  minutes'  delay  there,  a  few  francs  pre- 
vented further  trouble.  Near  the  city  there 
are  whole  fields  of  cabbages  of  both  colours. 

We  heard  at  the  Custom  House  that  the 
King  of  Prussia  was  expected  every  hour  from 
Liege  ;  and  accordingly,  when  we  entered  Aix 
the  whole  population  was  in  motion,  and  the 
streets  were  crowded  to  receive  him,  so  that 
we  trembled  for  a  lodging.  Yesterday  a  like 
apprehension  at  Verviers  and  at  Herve  had 
been  a  matter  of  jest ;  in  our  present  situation 
it  was  truly  painful,  for  the  child  was  worsen- 
ing every  minute.  The  Dragon  d'Or,  to  which 
we  had  been  directed,  was  full;  the  Hotel 
Grande,  chez  Dehigh,  which  is  next  door,  took 
us  in.  While  arrangements  were  making  for 
the  rooms,  I  walked  out  for  half  an  hour.  On 
my  return  the  child  appeared  so  ill  that  I 
thought  it  necessary  to  look  for  a  physician. 
C      162      ] 


JOURNAL 

There  was,  or  seemed  to  be,  a  risque  of  being 
recommended  to  some  ignorant  or  unprincipled 
fellow,  if  I  asked  the  people  of  the  inn  to  re- 
commend one.  I  therefore  went  to  the  Banker 
to  whom  my  circular  letter  was  addrest,  and 
asked  him  where  I  should  apply.  He  directed 
me  to  Dr.  Reumont,  who  had  studied  at  Edin- 
burgh. 

The  complaint  was  severe  without  being 
dangerous,  farther  than  the  danger  which  al- 
ways exists  that  such  a  disease  may  put  on  a 
malignant  type.  Under  any  circumstances  I 
should  have  been  anxious ;  and  here  we  were 
under  curious  circumstances  of  discomfort. 
The  people  of  the  house  were  brutal  in  the 
extreme;  we  were  obliged  to  take  what  we 
wanted,  for  they  would  not  bring  it  us,  and  to 
prepare  everything  ourselves.  Mrs.  Vardon's 
servants  were  of  great  use  in  purveying  for  us, 
and  foraging  for  what  was  necessary.  During 
two  days  it  was  only  water  that  she  needed, 
and  the  things  required  in  medicine.  She  had 
been  ordered  to  use  a  warm  gargle  every  hour, 
even  if  it  were  necessary  to  wake  her  for  that 
purpose :  this  was  not  needful,  for  she  never 
C      163      ] 


JO  U  B  N  A  L 

slept  an  hour  at  a  time ;  but  one  of  the  women 
servants  absolutely  refused  to  let  us  have  fuel 
for  keeping  up  a  fire  during  the  night  in  the 
adjoining  room.  She  said  we  had  been  sup- 
plied three  times  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and 
if  it  had  not  been  for  a  poor  civil  German 
woman,  who  speaks  no  French,  and  whom  I 
talked  with  by  help  of  the  grammar,  we  should 
have  been  without  fire.  On  Thursday  she 
grew  better,  but  apparently  fell  back  at  night. 
Friday  the  amendment  was  more  certain,  but 
at  night,  when  for  the  first  time  she  was  dis- 
posed to  a  natural  and  restoring  sleep,  the 
whole  Prussian  band  struck  up  in  the  yard 
under  our  window  and  played  for  about  an 
hour  ;  and  what  made  it  more  provoking  was, 
that  it  was  done  as  a  compliment  to  our  party. 
This  roused  her  so  compleatly  that  she  did  not 
sleep  a  wink  till  three  o'clock,  tho'  between  one 
and  two  I  got  out  of  bed  and  read  to  her  for 
half  an  hour,  in  hope  of  composing  her.  Sat- 
urday, however,  the  disease  was  subdued ;  it 
left  her  greatly  reduced  and  with  a  compleat 
prostration  of  spirits. 

Miserable  as  the  occasion  was  which  thus 
[      164      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

delayed  us  at  Aix-larChapelle,  the  delay  proved 
highly  advantageous.  Our  apartment  being 
close  to  the  sick-room,  it  was  determined  to 
dine  at  the  table  d  ^hhte  after  the  first  day, 
and  there  we  fell  into  the  company  of  some 
Prussian  officers,  who  were  here  recovering 
from  their  wounds.  Major  Petry,  second  in 
command  at  this  place,  was  one.  His  com- 
panions here  assure  us  that  it  was  he  who 
gained  the  battle  of  Donowitz,  and  that  he  is 
one  of  the  best  and  most  distinguished  men 
in  the  Prussian  service.  His  face  is  a  singular 
compound  of  two  countenances  perfectly  un- 
like each  other,  —  Carlisle's  and  Rickman's, 
the  character  of  the  latter  predominating.  He 
conmianded  in  the  attack  upon  Namur,  where 
a  bullet  entered  his  throat,  under  the  tongue, 
and  came  out  at  the  back  of  his  neck.  It  is 
said  that  he  vrill  recover  his  speech,  which  at 
present  is  intelligible  to  those  only  who  are 
accustomed  to  it. 

Captain  Ferdinand  Augustus,  Leopold  Fran- 
cis von  Dresky,  a  Silesian  by  birth,  was  an- 
other of  our  new  acquaintances ;  during  our  stay 
he  received  the  cross  of  honour  and  his  pro- 
[      165      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

motion  to  the  rank  of  Major,  for  his  conduct 
at  Ligny,  where  he  was  severely  wounded. 
Dreslqr  is  the  officer  who  was  ridden  over  with 
Bliicher  in  that  battle.  He  and  his  servant 
and  the  old  General  knew  that  their  only 
chance  of  escaping  was  to  lie  as  if  they  were 
dead.  After  a  while  he  ventured  to  look  up, 
and  asked  his  men  if  the  coast  were  clear.  — 
"  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  speak,"  was  the  reply. 
In  person,  I  certainly  never  have  seen  any 
man  who  excelled  —  perhaps  hardly  any  one 
who  in  all  respects  equalled  —  him  as  to  out- 
ward accomplishments.  At  this  time,  when  he 
is  overflowing  with  happiness,  his  natural  hi- 
larity has  full  scope,  and  he  possesses  a  versa- 
tility of  talents  of  which  he  is  fully  conscious, 
and  which  he  delights  to  display.  His  musical 
powers  absolutely  astonished  me.  He  plays 
the  violin  (tho'  it  is  not  what  he  calls  his  in- 
strument) in  such  a  manner  as  to  call  from  it 
the  tones  of ^  almost  every  instrument,  —  flute, 
drum,  trumpet,  guitar,  etc.  His  voice  is  so 
powerful  that  he  led  the  band  with  it,  and  it 
predominated  above  their  music.  But  his  most 
extraordinary  exhibition  was  upon  the  Jew's- 
[       166      ] 


JOURNAL 

Iiarp,  an  instrument  differing  a  little  in  its 
construction  here  from  the  English  one  of  that 
name,  but  not  in  more  repute.  Playing  upon 
two  of  these  at  once,  he  produced  sounds  as 
sweet  as  those  of  an  Eolian  harp ;  and  an  air 
in  which  he  echoed  with  the  one  the  notes  of  the 
oUier  was  more  magical  than  anything  I  ever 
heard  before.  He  assured  us  that  if  the  candles 
were  put  out,  the  effect  would  be  greater, 
and  that  this  was  not  imagination,  but  that 
darkness  produced  an  actual  and  perceptible 
difference  in  the  sounds.  The  experiment  was 
made,  and  every  person  agreed  that  it  was  so, 
—  a  fact  in  confirmation  of  an  opinion  which 
I  have  long  maintained. 

Another  of  these  officers  whom  I  shall  like 
to  remember  hereafter  is  a  young  Pomeranian, 
by  name  Geek,  son  of  a  rich  merchant  at 
Stettin.  He  is  said  to  resemble  the  Prince  of 
Orange  most  strikingly,  and  is  therefore  no 
beauty ;  but  from  what  is  said  of  the  Prince's 
present  conduct,  I  suspect  there  is  something 
in  Geek's  physiognomy  which  must  be  want- 
ing in  his  Boyal  Highness's ;  for  this  is  at 
once  a  very  acute  coimtenance  and  a  very 
[      167      ] 


JOURNAL 

honest  one.  I  found  him  not  only  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  literature  of  his  own  coun- 
try, but  estimating  it  judiciously,  and  speak- 
ing of  the  merits  of  the  different  poets  like 
a  man  whose  opinions  were  derived  from  the 
right  source. 

But  the  most  interesting  person  with  whom 
we  fell  in  was  a  Major  in  the  German  Legion, 
by  birth  a  Pole,  and  by  name  Constantine 
Charles  Henry  Ernest  Frederick  Augustus 
Gustav  Adolph  de  Forster,  —  for  so  he  has 
written  it  in  my  memorandmn-book.  What  a 
polyonymous  person !  Twice  as  many  names 
as  Dresky !  EUs  father  was  a  man  of  rank, 
holding  some  office  equivalent  to  that  of  our 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  But  the  family 
have  been  marked  for  misfortune.  One  brother 
was  taken  by  the  conscription  and  died  in 
a  hospital,  broken-hearted.  He  himself  was 
taken  prisoner  by  the  French,  and  after  much 
cruel  usage  (being  made  to  march  barefoot, 
etc.)  effected  his  escape  by  way  of  Strasburg, 
almost  miraculously.  He  was  afterwards  in 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick's  corps,  one  of  those 
who  stood  by  him  faithfully  to  the  last,  and 
£      168      ] 


JOURNAL 

were  ill-requited  by  that  Prince,  whose  only 
merit  seems  to  have  been  his  courage  and  his 
patriotism,  for  Forster  says  he  was  wanting  in 
gratitude,  principle,  and  conduct.  In  1810  he 
went  to  Spain  in  the  German  Legion,  and 
continued  there  till  the  end  of  the  war,  where 
by  marching  on  foot  in  that  climate,  by  biv- 
ouacking, and  by  a  fall  in  the  Pyrenees  down 
some  crags,  his  constitution  has  received  most 
serious  injury,  so  that  he  is  here,  on  unlimited 
leave  of  absence,  for  his  health.  All  his 
family  are  dead  except  two  brothers ;  the  one 
is  a  poor  lad  of  eighteen,  whom  he  has  always 
supported  out  of  his  pay,  and  who  has  now 
for  two  years  been  suffering  with  an  abscess 
of  the  spleen,  but  whom  he  speaks  of  with  the 
deepest  affection,  and  the  highest  admiration  for 
his  spirit  and  genius.  The  other,  who  was  also 
with  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  has  just  married 
the  daughter  of  a  Sicilian  noble.  Forster  had 
written  his  own  memoirs  up  to  the  year  1812, 
when  he  lost  them  in  a  shipwreck  off  Santona. 
He  has  promised  to  rewrite  them  under  my 
roof  next  summer,  if  he  lives  so  long.  The 
day  before  our  departure  he  had  a  return  of 
[      169      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

hemorrhage  from  the  Kver,  at  a  time  when  his 
meeting  with  me  and  the  news  of  his  brother's 
marriage  had  given  him  better  hopes  and  more 
chearful  feelings  than  have  often  fallen  to 
his  lot.  Illness  and  ill  fortune  have  fixed  a 
melancholy  and  thoughtful  character  upon 
his  countenance,  naturally  fine,  intellectual, 
and  open. 

All  these  men  were  Free  Masons,  and  Ros- 
ter having  been  initiated  into  the  same  fra- 
ternity, an  acquaintance  with  them  was  facili- 
tated by  that  circumstance.  When  I  was 
introduced,  each  of  them  tried  me  as  he  shook 
hands,  to  the  discomposure  of  my  joints  and 
knuckles;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  man 
may  derive  some  advantage  in  his  travels  from 
being  a  Free  Mason,  if  he  can  condescend  to 
degrade  himself  by  submitting  to  its  mysteries 
and  its  mummeries.  The  acquaintance  began 
at  table.  The  Prussians  filled  their  glasses 
with  champagne,  stood  up,  and  addressing 
themselves  to  us,  gave  the  Prince  Eegent's 
health.  In  return,  we  rendered  the  same  mark 
of  respect  to  the  King  of  Prussia.  Each  in- 
dividual then  gave  a  toast  in  turn,  after  we  had 
[      170      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

done  honour  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and 
Marshal  Bliicher ;  and  when  my  turn  came  I 
mustered  up  French  enough  to  say,  —  "  The 
Belle  Alliance  between  Prussia  and  England : 
may  it  continue  as  long  as  the  memory  of  the 
battle."  The  Prussians  were  so  pleased  at  this 
that  they  rose  and  embraced  me. 

It  is  not  possible  that  these  officers  can  be 
a  fair  specimen  of  the  Prussian  army,  for  they 
would  be  very  much  above  the  average  of  men 
anywhere ;  but  there  may  be  good  hopes  for 
any  nation  that  has  such  men  in  its  armies. 
They  had  a  national  feeling  at  once  proud  and 
generous,  such  as  the  last  two  years  of  their 
history  justified,  and  by  which,  indeed,  the  re- 
generation of  their  country  had  been  brought 
about.  Their  hatred  of  the  French  was  pro- 
found, principled,  and  hearty,  and  perhaps  the 
more  indignant  for  the  contempt  with  which 
it  is  mingled.  There  were  some  regiments, 
they  told  us,  in  which  the  officers  had  made  a 
rule  that  any  one  of  them  who  spoke  a  word 
in  French  should  be  knocked  down.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  look  and  the  gesture  of  Dresky 
when  he  was   speaking  of   the   French  hel- 

[      171      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

mets  worn  by  the  cuirassiers.  "They  save  the 
head,"  said  he,  "  from  a  cut  in  this  direction  " 
(suiting  the  action  to  the  word).  "  But  I  never 
cut  in  that  manner  ;  when  I  cut  at  a  French- 
man, I  cut  thus, "  and  he  made  a  kind  of  feint 
as  of  striking  right  at  the  face. 

The  tahle  d  ^Jwte  had  some  English  visitants ; 
they  were  an  old  harridan  of  quality.  Lady 
Aldborough  I  think  is  her  title,  sister  to  Lady 
Melbourne,  with  her  two  granddaughters.  Miss 
Rodney  and  Miss  Hallowell,  young  Ladies  ^ 
who  seem  very  well  disposed  to  walk  in  the 
way  wherein  they  are  trained  up.  Finding 
themselves  unnoticed  by  our  party,  and  that  we 
attracted  the  officers,  they  absented  themselves 
from  table  the  third  day,  and  decamped  the 
fourth. 

The  mistress  of  the  hotel  resembles  Lady 
in  person,  voice,  manner,  and  expres- 
sion, and  tho'  she  is  by  no  means  so  hand- 
some, the  likeness  is  as  striking  as  if  they 
were  twin  daughters  of  the  Devil.  Never  was 
a  house  under  worse  management.    The  first 

^  One  of  these  very  Ladies  has  heen  divorced  this  year 

1824. 

C       172       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

improvement  in  our  treatment  was  when  Kos- 
ter  (following  the  advice  of  the  Prussian  of- 
ficers) told  the  waiter  he  would  thrash  him  if 
he  did  not  attend  upon  us  better ;  the  second 
when  Mr.  Vardon  took  the  Landlady  to  task 
and  roundly  reprimanded  her.  It  seems  the 
economy  of  the  household  was  that  there  was 
a  woman  who  weighed  out  everything  to  the 
servants,  and  allowed  them  so  much  for  each 
person  in  the  house,  as  if  every  person  in  an 
Inn  were  not  entitled  to  have  as  much  of 
everything  as  he  chose  to  call  for. 

The  houille  or  Mitter  fire,  as  the  German 
woman  called  it,  requires  peculiar  manage- 
ment. Stirring  does  more  harm  than  good;  if 
you  blow  it,  you  put  it  out.  An  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle  guide  which  I  bought  here  taught  me 
to  make  it  bum  up  by  sprinkling  salt  upon  it. 
The  fire  is  good  and  durable,  but  it  makes  a 
great  quantity  of  ashes. 

The  Cathedral,  here  called  the  Notre  Dame, 
is  the  most  extraordinary  building  we  have 
seen.  The  central  part,  which  is  Charlemagne's 
work,  seems  to  have  been  built  after  a  Grreek, 
that  is  to  say  a  Constantinopolitan  model ;  but 
[       173      ] 


JOURNAL. 

in  every  succeeding  age  something  has  been 
added,  and  there  is  now  so  much  patchwork 
that  some  houses  which  have  been  built  round 
the  one  end  of  the  church,  between  the  but- 
tresses, so  as  to  block  up  the  lower  part  of  the 
longest  windows  in  the  world  (such  I  suppose 
them  to  be),  hardly  appear  out  of  place.  There 
remain  no  other  vestiges  of  the  founder's  tomb 
than  a  large  slab  with  the  words  Carola 
Magna.  We  did  not  see  the  relics.  There  are 
some  very  curious  brasses  in  the  wall  of  one 
of  the  chapels ;  the  letters  are  raised  and  the 
groundwork  strongly  hatched,  which  makes 
the  inscription  much  more  distinct.  It  is  like 
wood  engraving ;  an  impression  of  the  letters 
might  have  been  taken.  Under  one  of  these, 
the  epitaph  of  some  old  canon,  is  a  ghastly 
representation  of  a  dead  body,  with  worms  as 
large  as  snakes  at  their  work.  Some  lads  of 
sixteen  or  eighteen  were  whipping  tops  in  the 
cloisters  and  smoaking  their  pipes  at  the  same 
time. 

We  had  intended  to  commence  our  return 
on  Monday ;  it  was,  however,  found  prudent  to 
remain  another  day,  that  Edith  might  recover 

[      174      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

a  little  more  strength ;  and  making  use  of 
the  time,  I  went  up  the  hill  on  which  the  obe- 
lisk stands.  The  hill  is  called  Lausberg,  ori- 
ginally Luouesberch,  signifying,  according  to 
M.  Poissenot,  the  mount  of  observation.  Bea- 
con-hill is  the  more  likely  meaning  of  the  name, 
and  this  explanation  of  the  Frenchman  savours 
the  obelisk,  which  bears  these  inscriptions. 
On  the  south  side_:  — 

Cette  pyramide  est  un  des  sommets  des 
grands  triangles  qui  ont  s&rvi  de  base  a  la 
carte  topographique  et  militaire  des  departe- 
mens  reunis  de  la  rive  gauche  du  Hhin,  levee 
sous  le  regne  de  Napoleon  le  Grand,  et 
d'apres  les  ordres  de  S.  A.  S.  le  prince  Alex- 
andre Berthier,  ministre  de  la  guerre,  par 
les  offimers  ingenieurs-geographes  depot  ge- 
neral de  la  guerre. 

On  the  west :  — 

Au  mois  de  Juillet  1804,  il  a  etc  fait,  au 
pied  de  cette  pyramide  des  observations  astro- 
nomiques  par  M.  J.  Jos.  Tranchot,  astro- 
name,  directeur  et  Colonel  au  corps  des  in- 
genieurs-geographes, qui  en  a  determine  la 
[      176      ] 


JOURNAL 

latitude  de  50°,  47',  8",  8"  ',  et  la  longitude, 
comptee  de  V  Observatoire  de  Paris  de  3°, 
44',  67",  5"'. 

On  the  north :  — 

La  distance  de  ce  point  a  la  ligne  meridi- 
enne,  passant  par  V  Observatoire  de  Paris,  est 

de  264187^  7. 

La  distance  a  la  ligne  perpendiculaire  a 
cette  meridienne, passant  par  la  meme  Observa- 
toire, est  de  223526=^,  7. 

La  distance  a  la  grande  tour  de  Sittard, 
est  de  28124"',  98. 

La  distance  ct  la  grande  tour  d'Erkdens, 
est  de  36596^  05. 

Cette  demiere  distance  forme,  avec  le  meri- 
dien  de  ce  lieu,  un  angle  spMrique  de  26°, 
27',  11",  21" '. 

On  the  east :  — 

The  original  inscription  was 

A  NAPOLi:ON-LE-GRAND 

PBEMIEB  EMPEBEUB  DEB  EBAN9AIS 

ET  BOI  D'ITALIE 

[       176       ] 


J  O  U  K  N  A  li 

but  that  has  been  erased,  and  in  its  place 
there  now  stands  the  following  memorial  of 
his  fall:  — 

DENCKMAL 

GALLISCHEM 

GEBUEMUTHE 

EIN8T  GEWEBHT 

MIT  DEN 

TYBANNEN 

ZUGLEICH 

GESTUEZT 

AM   11   APBIL 

1814 


WIEOEB 

EBBICHTET  DEB 

WI8SENSCHAPT 

UND  TEUTSCHEB 

KBAPT 

AM  TAGE  DEB  FEYEB- 

-LICHEN  HULDIQUNG 

DEB  PBUSSISCHEN 

BHEIN-LAENDEB 

DEN  XV  MAY 

1815 


J  O  U  B  N  A  Ij 

Just  below  the  summit  of  this  hill  is  one  of 
the  coffee-houses  which  are  so  numerous  about 
this  city,  with  a  fine  room  commanding  a  rich 
and  extensive  prospect.  The  two  towers  of  the 
Town-House  come  in  very  finely  here,  with  the 
Cathedral.  A  willowy  hue  stiU  predominates 
in  the  landscape,  and  the  effect  of  this  foliage 
is  increased  and  partly  modified  with  a  bluer 
tinge  by  the  quantity  of  ground  which  is  planted 
with  cabbages,  here  cultivated  more  extensively 
for  men  than  for  cattle  in  England.  I  am 
persuaded  the  sour  krout  would  be  one  of  the 
most  useful  additions  that  could  be  made  to 
our  standard  food.  They  are  forming  a  fine 
public  walk  round  the  walls ;  or  perhaps  were 
making  it,  for  it  was  commenced  in  Buona- 
parte's time,  who,  in  imitation  of  Cliarlemagne, 
affected  to  distinguish  this  city  by  his  favour. 
Fish-ponds  are  very  numerous  here,  tho'  one 
never  saw  any  fish  at  the  tahle  d'hJbte  except 
red  herrings.  We  drove  to  Borset,  or  Bur- 
sheid,  for  it  is  one  inconvenience  in  these  coun- 
tries that  every  place  has  two  names,  its  Grer- 
man  and  its  French  one,  which  are  sometimes 
very  different,  and  sometimes  a  Dutch  name 
[      178      ] 


JOURNAL 

equally  differing  from  either;  for  example, 
Liege  is  called  Luttich  by  the  Germans,  Luyk 
by  the  Dutch;  Aix-la-Chapelle  is  Achen  or 
Aken.  Bursheid  is  a  large  village  about  one 
mile  from  the  city,  and  one  of  the  hot  springs 
for  which  this  part  of  the  country  is  remark- 
able rises  in  the  street,  in  a  large  open  octagon 
walled  basin.  The  water  is  hot  enough  to 
dress  an  egg.  The  stream  which  it  produces 
flows  under  cover  for  about  an  hundred  yards, 
—  after  which  it  serves  as  a  general  washing- 
place,  and  simdry  washerwomen  were  availing 
themselves  of  it. 

The  poultry  are  very  familiar  in  this  city. 
They  frequently  come  into  the  public  room, 
and  in  a  stationer's  shop  there  were  some 
perched  on  the  counter,  —  a  familiarity,  this, 
which  implies  in  the  inhabitants  more  good 
nature  than  cleanliness.  There  is  a  cruel  con- 
sumption of  small  birds  in  all  these  countries, 
insomuch  that  I  wonder  that  they  are  not  ex- 
tirpated ;  for  they  are  a  constant  and  favourite 
dish  everywhere.  They  dress  them  undrawn 
like  woodcocks,  but  the  sight  of  red  herrings  in 
the  inside  is  by  no  means  tempting.  We  saw 
[      179      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  Ij 

a  jay  in  the  market,  and  I  am  told  magpies 
may  sometimes  be  seen  there. 

In  the  afternoon  we  visited  the  Cabinet  of 

Baron .     It   is  one  of   three   collections 

which  the  virtuosos  of  the  last  century  were 
fond  of  forming,  and  which  travellers  were  at 
one  time  chiefly  employed  in  visiting  and  cata- 
loguing ;  it  was  the  fashion  then  for  travellers 
to  look  for  curiosities  and  antiquities,  and  they 
seem  to  have  had  no  eyes  for  anything  else. 
This  collection  is  rich  in  agates,  carved  ivory, 
and  bronzes,  and  must  have  been  made  at  an 
enormous  expense.  The  room  was  filled  up 
with  stuffed  animals,  and  at  one  end  of  it  sate 
a  waxwork  old  gentleman  in  a  wig,  as  if  he 
were  reading  a  folio  on  the  table  before  him. 
A  singular  lusus  naturce  is  preserved  here,  —  a 
block  of  wood  sawn  transversely  and  represent- 
ing a  profile  which  I  instantly  recognised  to  be 
like  that  of  Louis  XVI. ;  it  is  plainly  the  natu- 
ral veining,  without  any  assistance  from  art. 
The  room  into  which  we  were  first  introduced 
had  its  walls  compleatly  covered  with  prints, 
of  which  great  part  were  of  English  manufac- 
ture ;  I  must  use  the  word,  because  prints  are 
[      180      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

manufactured  in  England,  the  spirit  of  trade 
degrading  everytliing  with  which  it  connects 
itself.  The  garden  of  this  Nobleman's  seat 
was  a  good  specimen  of  its  kind.  There  was 
a  piece  of  stagnant  water  there,  not  to  be  con- 
demned because  it  served  as  a  fish-pond,  and 
fish-ponds,  which  are  useful  everywhere,  are 
necessary  to  the  comfort  of  a  Catholic  family 
in  inland  countries.  It  is  very  small,  and  in 
great  part  overgrown  with  aquatic  plants  ;  yet 
an  island  had  been  formed  in  it,  communicat- 
ing with  the  mainland  by  a  bridge,  and  on 
this  island  was  a  boathouse,  and  by  this  boat- 
house  lay  a  boat,  which  three  strokes  of  the 
oar  would  have  sent  to  land  in  any  direction, 
except  one,  where  perhaps  half  a  dozen  more 
might  have  been  required.  The  borders  and 
alleys  were  ornamented  with  a  railing,  and 
with  little  Cupids  at  regfular  intervals. 

Tuesday,  17  Oct 

jMr.  Short  wrote  to  Mr.  Vardon  from  Maes- 
tricht,  to  let  him  know  that  the  road  was  very 
bad,  and  that  we  should  find  a  most  obliging 
hostess  at  the  Levrier.  This  Gentleman's 
[      181      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

family  it  was  wlicli  had  forestalled  us  at  Ver- 
viers ;  we  had  spoken  with  him  there,  met 
them  on  the  next  day's  road,  and  were  at  the 
same  hotel  at  Aix.  He  is  a  Devonshire  man, 
who,  having  had  his  boys  educated  up  to  a  cer- 
tain age  by  my  old  friend  Lightfoot  (of  whom 
he  spoke  as  one  loves  to  hear  an  old  friend 
spoken  of),  had  placed  them  at  Westminster, 
and  taken  a  house  in  Abingdon  Street,  for 
the  sake  of  being  near  them.  Colonel  Hall- 
burton  called  on  us  with  a  message  from  him 
to  the  same  purport,  lest  his  letter  should  not 
have  arrived.  The  reason  of  this  solicitude 
on  his  part  was  that  he  had  witnessed  the  be- 
haviour of  the  Aix-la-Chapelle  Hostess,  and 
knew  how  desirable  it  was,  in  case  Edith  should 
have  any  return  of  the  fever,  that  we  should 
find  common  humanity  in  the  mistress  of  the 
house. 

Our  coachmen  had  always  said  that  the 
road  to  Maestricht  was  bad,  and  that  a  third 
horse  for  each  carriage  would  be  necessary. 
They  had  heard,  however,  now  that  it  was 
worse  than  they  had  apprehended,  and  re- 
quired each  an  additional  pair.  After  Mr. 
[      182      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  L 

Short's  letter  and  the  Colonel's  account  of  this 
road,  it  would  have  been  unreasonable  to  have 
made  any  demur;  both  the  men,  moreover, 
being  very  careful,  civil,  and  obliging,  and,  I 
believe,  very  honest,  —  at  least  we  have  every 
reason  to  think  so. 

Forster  would  have  risen  from  his  bed  and 
come  across  the  street  to  take  leave  of  us ; 
but  I  extorted  a  promise  from  him  not  to  at- 
tempt this,  and  charged  his  servant  (a  faith- 
fid  old  soldier,  who  has  refused  his  discharge 
that  he  may  still  attend  him)  not  to  allow  it. 
He  would,  however,  rise  and  come  to  the  win- 
dow. I  parted  from  him  with  much  regret 
and  much  fear,  but  not  without  a  hope  that 
our  meeting  may  prove  of  some  advantage  to 
himself  —  and  to  history,  for  his  Memoirs, 
seeing  what  he  is,  and  what  he  has  seen,  would 
be  most  valuable.  Major  Petry  was  to  have 
escorted  us  out  of  town ;  but  his  wound,  or 
rather  the  issue  at  the  back  of  his  neck,  had 
been  painful  in  the  night  and  rendered  it 
prudent  for  him  to  keep  his  apartment.  We 
took  leave  of  him  there,  where  he  and  another 
officer  were  smoking.  The  skin  of  that  officer 
[      183      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

was  covered  with  a  varnish  composed  of  to- 
bacco smoke  and  perspiration.  Dresky  and 
Geek  drove  out  with  us  in  an  open  carriage. 
The  Commissionaire  had  taken  our  passports 
to  the  Commandant,  and  brought  us  in  return 
a  letter  of  surety  for  four  days,  to  be  renewed 
if  needful.  The  passports  were  now  made 
valid  for  Maestricht. 

Our  road  lay  round  the  end  of  the  Laus- 
berg,  on  which  the  obelisk  stands.  It  led  us 
thro'  a  rich  and  pleasing  country;  the  red 
foliage  in  the  landscape  exceeded  in  vividness 
any  that  I  remember  to  have  seen.  About 
three  miles  from  the  city  our  friends  took 
their  farewell,  Geek  with  an  honest  shake  of 
the  hand,  and  a  promise  that  we  shoidd  see 
him  in  England,  where  he  had  been  in  the 
King's  train,  and  consequently  had  seen  little 
more  than  Kings  see.  Dresky  saluted  Mr. 
Vardon,  Koster,  and  myself,  the  only  persons 
who  were  then  on  foot,  first  on  the  right  side  of 
the  nose,  then  on  the  left,  a  ceremony  to  which 
I  submitted  with  great  resignation,  and  which 
my  daughter  witnessed  with  no  less  astonish- 
ment. And  so  farewell  to  Aix-larChapelle. 
[      184      ] 


JOURNAL 

The  road  was  even  worse  than  it  had  been 
represented.  An  Englishman,  indeed,  must 
not  expect  to  find  such  cross-roads  on  the  Conti- 
nent as  in  his  own  country,  far  as  they  are  even 
there  from  being  what  they  ought  to  be.  The 
country  fertile  and  populous,  and  tho'  in  its 
picturesque  appearance  not  entitled  to  a  higher 
epithet  than  pleasing,  pleasing  it  certainly  was 
to  a  high  degree,  —  streams,  villages,  churches, 
a  chateau  here  and  there  with  its  Flemish 
towers,  and  a  general  woodiness,  not  produced 
by  coppices  or  forests,  but  by  enclosures  and 
hedgerows.  The  willowy  hue  again  predom- 
inated when  we  had  left  the  bluer  tint  which 
the  vast  fields  of  cabbage  occasion  round  the 
city.  A  residence  among  lakes  and  moimtains 
has  not  in  any  degree  diminished  my  enjoy- 
ment of  humbler  and  milder  scenes.    We  past 


a  churchyard  fuU  of  gravestones,  noticeable 

because  we  had  not  observed  tombstones  be- 

C      185      ] 


JOURNAL 

fore  in  any  such  situation.  They  were  all  in 
the  form  of  a  short  cross,  the  arms  and  top 
being  broad  and  round. 

When  we  were  about  three  miles  from 
Maestricht,  it  began  to  rain  most  heavily, 
insomuch  that  our  carriage  stopt  and  both 
Gnmipy  and  the  postillion  took  shelter  imder 
its  lee,  the  former  laughing  heartily  in  the 
best  humour,  tiU  the  pelting  had  abated  a 
little,  and  then  we  proceeded.  The  master  of 
the  horses,  one  of  the  hugest  and  heaviest 
men  I  ever  saw,  rode  postillion  to  the  first 
carriage,  —  an  unmercifid  load  he  was,  for  he 
was  at  least  six  feet  in  stature,  and  all  his 
limbs  were  of  enormous  bulk.  Our  postillion 
was  a  lad,  apparently  about  seventeen,  who 
smoked  as  he  went,  according  to  the  abomi- 
nable custom  of  this  country,  and  had  been 
more  than  once  admonished  by  his  master  to 
pay  a  little  more  attention  to  the  off-horse  lest 
it  should  fall.  The  fellow  chose  rather  to  at- 
tend to  his  pipe,  and  so  going  downhill  the 
horse  tript  and  fell.  It  required  aU  Grumpy's 
skill  to  keep  the  carriage  back,  and  well  it 
was  that  Grumpy  was  skilful ;  and  it  was 
[      186      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

some  time  before  the  horse  could  be  got  up. 
But  then,  to  our  no  small  astonishment,  the 
lad,  tho'  he  himself  had  not  fallen,  was  so 
frightened  that  he  ran  away,  meaning  to  make 
his  way  back  to  Aix-la-ChapeHe.  Koster  pur- 
sued, and  presently  brought  him  back.  He 
still  declared  that  he  would  drive  us  no  far- 
ther ;  upon  this  his  master  gave  him  two  or 
three  well-deserved  strokes  with  the  whip,  and 
getting  furious  as  he  gave  way  to  anger,  threw 
him  down  in  the  dirt  and  trod  upon  his  neck. 
Being  in  the  close  carriage  I  was  so  placed  as 
not  to  see  this  act  of  ferocious  anger.  The 
lad,  however,  was  more  frightened  than  hurt ; 
and  the  last  fear  prevailing  over  the  first,  he 
remounted,  and  we  reached  Maestricht  safely. 
The  distance  is  four  posts  —  about  eighteen 
nules. 

The  atmosphere  was  so  thick  with  rain  that 
we  saw  little  of  the  city  as  we  approached  it, 
and  in  this  we  had  some  loss,  considering  its 
situation  and  its  importance  in  military  his- 
tory. But  we  caught  a  sight  of  the  moats 
and  ramparts  and  drawbridges  and  gates  in 
passiQg  them.  The  Levrier  is  not  so  plea- 
[      187      ] 


J    O  U  B  N  A  L 

santly  situated  as  those  Hotels  which  stand  in 
the  Great  Place;  the  Hostess  has,  however, 
a  reputation  among  English  travellers  for 
obliging  civility,  and  certainly  she  well  de- 
serves it.  Everything  here  was  good  of  its 
kind.  The  apartment  was  well  furnished,  and 
the  walls  so  fuU  of  closets  as  literally  to  be 
lined  with  them.  There  were  some  family 
portraits  decently  executed,  two  landscapes 
ill  cut  in  paper,  poor  specimens  of  a  poor  art ; 
a  bust  of  Voltaire  about  as  good  as  the  com- 
mon porcelain  ones  of  Wesley,  and  a  com- 
panion to  it  which  I  suppose  to  be  Rousseau* 

"  VoQa  quelque  chose  de  rare  I "  said  our 
good-natured  hostess,  bringing  in  a  plate  of 
wild  strawberries  after  dinner,  —  and  rare  it 
must  be  allowed  they  were  in  the  middle  of 
October. 

There  was  no  stirring  out  of  doors  the  re- 
mainder of  the  day,  because  of  the  -continued 
rain. 

Wednesday,  18  Oct. 

X  HERE  is  a  very  fine  raven  belonging  to  this 

Hotel,  with  a  mane  like  a  cock.     He  spoke 

[      188      ] 


JOURNAL 

the  word  Napoleon  distinctly.  Grumpy  tells 
us  there  was  one  in  this  city  which  was  known  to 
be  a  hundred  and  ten  years  old,  and  used  to  wan- 
der about  the  place  whither  he  pleased,  being 
known  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child  as  the 
old  Raven,  and  held  sacred  accordingly,  till  a 
year  or  two  ago,  when  some  French  soldiers 
killed  it  in  mere  mischief. 

Mr.  Locker,  when  we  fell  in  with  him  at 
Bruges,  earnestly  advised  us  not  to  omit  see- 
ing the  quarries  at  Maestricht,  which  are  the 
most  remarkable  excavations  of  their  kind. 
We  hired  two  hackney  coaches  at  six  francs 
each  to  take  us  thither,  and  according  to  cus- 
tom drove  thro'  them  in  the  usual  route. 
But  the  horses  in  one  turned  restive,  and  had 
nearly  overturned  it.  The  way,  owing  to  the 
rain,  proved  actually  impassable ;  of  necessity 
therefore  we  got  out,  and  fearful  of  her  catch- 
ing cold,  I  carried  Edith  May  over  the  wet 
ground.  We  entered  the  hill,  or  mountain  as 
it  is  called,  under  a  low  arch  of  masonry, 
where  my  Lady  Governess,  feeling  the  oppres- 
siveness of  the  air,  would  fain  have  turned 
back,  if  I  would  have  permitted  her,  or  if 
[      189      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

there  had  been  any  one  to  have  returned  with 
her.  But  we  soon  past  this  low  entrance  and 
found  ourselves  in  the  excavations,  where,  dead 
as  the  air  is,  and  motionless,  it  produces  no  sense 
of  weight  or  suffocation.  We  continued  walk- 
ing about  an  hour  at  a  good  brisk  pace  in 
these  endless  labyrinths,  where  I  believe  none 
of  the  party  felt  themselves  perfectly  at  ease 
except  the  Guide,  for  irretrievably  lost  we 
must  have  been  without  him,  as  soon  as  we 
had  lost  sight  of  the  entrance.  Certainly  it  is 
Tiot  prudent  to  venture  into  such  a  labyrinth, 
with  only  one  guide  who  knew  the  way,  and 
no  more  than  two  flambeaux,  which  were  both 
lighted  at  the  same  time.  But  I  determined, 
in  case  these  should  by  any  accident  fail  us, 
to  sit  down  immediately  and  wait  till  we  should 
be  missed  at  the  Hotel  and  search  made  for 
us.  For  if  we  remained  in  any  part  of  the 
regular  course,  there  we  should  be  found. 
Among  the  names  inscribed  on  the  white  stone 
piUars  and  roof  was  that  of  Ellen  Locker. 
Buonaparte  had  been  there,  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange.  The  sides,  indeed,  were  everywhere 
marked  with  the  memorials  of  former  visitors. 
[      190      ] 


JOURNAL 

They  led  ns  to  a  stone  hollowed  like  a  bason, 
into  which  water  continually  falls  from  the 
roof,  drop  by  drop;  and  to  a  chapel  deco- 
rated upon  the  excavated  sides  with  drawings 
of  Purgatory,  etc.,  by  no  means  ill-executed. 
Here  and  there  were  other  drawings,  heads, 
or  whole  length  figures,  and  in  one  place  a 
Cherubim's  head.  We  were  told  that  these 
excavations  extend  aU  the  way  to  Liege.  I 
believe,  indeed,  that  both  cities  have  been 
built  from  them. 

None  of  our  party  were  so  entirely  at  their 
ease  during  this  hour's  walk  as  not  to  acknow- 
ledge a  feeling  of  hearty  pleasure  when  once 
more  in  sight  of  daylight.  We  debouched 
upon  an  eminence  above  the  Meuse,  having 
on  the  right  the  ruins  of  a  Castle  which  the 
Guide  assured  us  was  built  by  Julius  Csesar  ; 
and  on  the  left,  shut  in  by  the  door  of  what 
had  once  been  a  Convent  of  RecoUets,  but  is 
now  in  greut  part  demolished,  and  the  rest 
converted  into  a  coffee-house  and  pubhc  gar- 
den. Maestricht  was  on  our  left.  The  scene 
reminded  us  in  some  respects  of  the  view  over 
the  same  river  from  Namur;  it  is  not  so  fine 

C      191      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

but  we  came  upon  it  in  a  manner  to  make 
us  feel  its  beauty  most  sensibly.  Few  things 
can  be  more  striking  than  to  emerge  from  a 
long  subterranean  walk  upon  such  a  prospect, 
in  light  and  sunshine;  and  it  is  well  worth 
while  to  go  into  these  frightful  excavations, 
were  it  only  for  the  pleasure  of  coming  out  of 
them.  It  was  from  the  recollections  of  hav- 
ing felt  thus  at  Wokey  Hole,  some  twenty 
years  before,  that  I  wrote  the  beginning  of  the 
last  canto  but  one  in  "  Kehama. " 

When  we  entered  the  Gate  yesterday,  a 
young  Belgian  Officer  very  civilly  said  he 
would  not  detain  us  in  the  rain,  but  would 
send  for  our  passports.  This,  however,  was 
not  done.  The  English  are  apt  to  complain 
of  this  part  of  the  police  in  other  countries. 
We  have  never  experienced  the  slightest 
trouble  or  inconvenience  from  it,  and  the  regu- 
lation appears  to  me  not  only  necessary  at  this 
time,  but  reasonable  and  useful  at  all  times. 

On  our  return  to  the  Hotel,  the  carriages 
were  ready,  and  we  started  before  twelve 
o'clock.  The  drivers  lost  some  twenty  minutes 
by  taking  a  wrong  road  when  they  set  out. 

[       192       ] 


JOURNAL 

Three  leagues  over  the  pave  to  Tongres;  a 
little  before  we  reached  it,  there  are  some 
large  and  very  well-shaped  barrows.  This 
place,  once  of  such  celebrity,  is  now  in  a  state 
of  sad  decay.  It  has  never  recovered  the  wan- 
ton havock  committed  there  by  the  French  in 
Louis  XIV. 's  time.  No  modem  nation  has 
so  many  crimes  of  this  kind  to  disgrace  its 
history  as  the  French.  And  perhaps  there  is 
not  any  Prince  who  ought  to  be  so  peculiarly 
odious  for  the  havock  which  his  armies  com- 
mitted as  Louis  XIV. 

The  Church  here,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  that  was  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary 
on  this  side  the  Alps,  was  set  on  fire  by  those 
wretches,  and  its  fine  tower  destroyed.  It  is 
still  a  grand  and  venerable  edifice,  tho'  dis- 
figured by  some  incongruous  additions.  We 
entered  it  in  time  to  be  present  at  a  christen- 
ing. The  child,  which  had  been  bom  that  day, 
was  weU  or  rather  ill  swaddled  in  the  old  pre- 
posterous fashion,  and  wrapt  in  a  mantle  most 
richly  embroidered  with  coloured  silks.  The 
midwife  carried  it,  and  the  father  and  sponsors 
attended,  —  decent  people  in  humble  life.  The 
[      193      ] 


JOURNAL 

ceremony  was  mumbled  over  by  the  PrieEft, 
with  as  much  haste  and  as  little  decorum  as 

it  is  by  the  Vicar  of ;  and  the  in£ant, 

having  been  blown  upon,  touched  with  spittle, 
crost,  christened,  sprinkled,  oiled,  and  salted, 
was  laid  on  the  altar.  I  observed  that  while 
the  Priest  read  the  office,  the  lips  of  the  at- 
tendants moved  as  if  mechanically,  tho'  they 
did  not  understand  what  he  was  saying.  The 
service  was  performed  at  one  of  the  side 
altars;  but  I  neglected  (which  I  am  sorry 
for)  to  observe  of  what  Saint,  and  to  ask  the 
name  of  the  child.  A  five  franc  piece  was 
given  for  her,  as  a  memento  that  some  English 
travellers  had  been  present  at  her  baptism. 

We  lunched  here  with  good  appetites  upon 
bread,  butter,  cheese,  and  wine,  good  things 
which  you  meet  with,  good  of  their  kind  every- 
where in  these  countries ;  the  bread,  I  think, 
always  better  than  in  England,  and  the  butter 
and  cheese  generally  so.  Our  room  was  hung 
with  canvas  painted  in  good  imitation  of  tap- 
estry. I  went  out  to  look  for  some  fruit,  and 
finding  some  excellent  apples,  proffered  in  pay- 
ment a  piece  of  the  base  metal  which  is  current 

[      194      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

here,  but  which  had  been  refused  at  the  Liege 
post  office.  It  was  as  much  like  a  button  as 
a  bad  shilling :  they  gave  me  as  many  apples 
as  my  pockets  would  hold,  and  a  heap  of  cop- 
per money  beside,  in  exchange.  Upon  the 
same  stall  there  were  large  snails  lying  for 
sale,  —  the  common  large  house-snail,  not  the 
larger  kind  which  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  imported, 
and  which,  if  it  still  exists  in  Buckinghamshire, 
has  not,  I  believe,  travelled  beyond  it. 

Here  we  were  assured  that  the  next  two 
leagues  were  actually  impassable  without  four 
horses  to  each  carriage,  and  would  scarcely  be 
passable  with  them.  The  Landlady  at  Maas- 
tricht had  boasted  of  the  road  to  Louvaine,  as 
a  light  half-day's  journey  for  us  :  it  was  only 
two  leagues,  she  said,  of  country  road  (^de  terre 
was  her  expression),  and  the  rest  of  the  way 
was  like  the  street,  —  which  we  should  have 
thought  no  recommendation  in  England  ;  but 
here  it  is  as  desirable  for  the  traveller  to  get  on 
the  stones  as  it  is  there  to  get  ofiP  them.  For 
noise  and  jolting,  however,  the  paved  roads  are 
just  like  the  streets.  We  now  perceived  that 
we  had  been  at  cross-purposes  with  Colonel 
[      195      ] 


J  OU  R  N  A  L 

Haliburton,  and  that  tliis  was  the  stage  con- 
cernmg  which  Mr.  Short  had  desired  him  to 
warn  us.  There  was  some  delay  in  getting 
horses  from  the  plough,  and  we  resumed  our 
journey  about  four  o'clock. 

The  Church  continued  in  sight  as  long  as 
there  was  light  for  distinguishing  it,  —  a  grand 
and  solemn  object  in  this  wide  and  open  plain. 
Of  what  coarse  clay  must  those  beasts  upon  two 
legs  be  formed,  who  are  for  pidling  down  Ca- 
thedrals and  building  Meeting  Houses  ! 

The  roads  were  indeed,  as  Grumpy  called 
them,  dbomindble.  Three  times  we  were 
obliged  to  alight  and  walk,  while  the  carriages 
were  dragged  thro'  places  so  bad  that  it  wa? 
doubtful  whether  they  would  escape  an  over- 
turn. These  places  were  generally  deep 
sloughs.  But  in  one  part  the  way  from  one 
line  of  road  (if  road  it  may  be  called)  into 
another  had  been  banked  up  by  the  owner  of 
the  ground  at  the  farther  end,  leaving  the  other 
open  where  we  had  entered,  so  that  we  were 
caught  as  in  a  trap.  In  the  midst  of  this  diffi- 
culty, where  the  nicest  driving  was  required, 
the  pin  of  our  carriage  came  out,  and  never 
[       196      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

did  I  see  more  presence  of  mind  and  judicious 
exertion  than  were  displayed  in  replacing  it. 
Indeed,  both  drivers  and  postillions  behaved 
with  the  greatest  alacrity  and  good  humour, 
and  we  got  through  at  the  expense  only  of  a 
few  sacres  and  sacrements.  An  Englishman 
j^eems  to  increase  his  angry  or  vexed  feelings 
by  swearing ;  but  the  pests  and  sacres  which 
are  in  use  here  appear  to  act  as  safety-valves. 
The  words  are  uttered  with  a  slow  and  delib- 
erate earnestness  of  enunciation,  in  which  the 
vexation  that  called  them  forth  passes  away. 
The  third  of  these  passes  was  an  absolute 
Slough  of  Despond,  —  a  long  piece  of  hollow 
road,  half  full  of  water ;  but  we  had  here  the 
distant  sound  of  wheels  upon  the  paved  way, 
and  few  sounds  were  ever  more  welcome  to  our 
ears.  In  the]  midst  of  this  slough,  where  the 
water  and  mud  were  up  to  the  horses'  bellies, 
the  pin  came  out  a  second  time,  and  was  a  sec- 
ond time,  with  equal  dexterity,  replaced,  tho' 
poor  Gnmipy  could  only  act  by  the  sense  of 
feeling,  it  now  being  too  dark  for  him  to  see 
what  he  was  about.  We  were  at  this  time 
walking  on  the  high  and  dry  bank  above,  and 
[      197      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

just  then  the  moon  rose  behind  us,  red  as  blood, 
over  the  wide  and  open  country  which  we  were 
leaving. 

Having  at  length  cleared  this  passage,  we 
reached  the  chaussee.  From  Maestricht  as 
far  as  Tongres  I  believe  to  be  the  Liege  road 
from  that  city,  and  we  had  now  crost  into  the 
road  from  Liege  to  Brussels.  The  first  letter 
in  the  alphabet  represents  the  course  —  A  — 
we  have  gone  up  the  left  leg  halfway,  and  then 
struck  by  the  cross-line  into  the  right  one,  in- 
stead of  describing  the  angle.  There  is  a  poor 
cabaret  where  this  bye-road  opens  into  the  high 
one,  and  we  went  in  to  warm  ourselves  and  dry 
our  feet  while  the  horses  rested.  The  only 
liquor  it  afforded  was  white  beer,  'a  weak, 
fresh,  and  not  unpleasant  beverage,  tasting 
well  of  the  malt ;  if  bottled,  I  have  no  doubt 
but  that  it  would  be  a  very  agreeable  summer 
drink.  The  kitchen  was  full  of  country  fel- 
lows, who  neither  moved  their  hats,  nor  ap- 
peared in  the  slightest  degree  curious  at  be- 
holding so  large  a  party  of  foreigners.  One 
man  sate  writing  a  letter  the  whole  time,  with- 
out once  lifting  his  eyes  from  the  paper.  The 
£      198      ] 


JOURNAL 

mistress  of  the  house  was  a  woman  of  prodi- 
gious stature,  at  least  six  feet  high.  They 
were  all  decent  in  their  appearance ;  and  I 
may  remark  here  that  during  our  whole  jour- 
ney we  have  seen  no  drunkenness,  no  quarrel- 
ling (unless  the  a£fair  of  yesterday  with  the 
postiUion  be  called  so,  —  which  was  rather  a 
matter  of  chastisement),  and  no  ill  behaviour 
of  any  kind.  We  had  fuU  leisure  for  look- 
ing at  these  people  well,  and  were  aU  struck 
by  the  general  good  expression  of  their  coun- 
tenances. 

Here  the  extra  horses  were  dismissed ;  the 
stage  had  been  severe,  tho'  short  (about  six 
miles),  and  the  drivers  were  very  thankfid  for 
a  [franc  each,  which  they  had  well  deserved. 
We  paid  for  what  our  own  horses  had  here, 
and  also  for  the  coachmen,  —  which  put  them 
also  in  high  good-humour.  They  were  two 
civil,  good  fellows  as  ever  travellers  fell  in 
with.  The  moonlight  served  us  well  for  our 
stage  to  St.  Trou,  which  was  three  leagues. 
Our  inn  was  the  Hotel  de  Sauvage.  We  went 
into  the  public  room,  which  was  heated  by  a 
comfortless  stove  in  the  middle,  and  there  we 

[      199      3 


JOURNAL 

found  a  Belgian  officer,  who  commanded  the 
detachment  stationed  in  this  poor  decayed 
town.  Like  every  man  with  whom  we  have 
conversed,  he  seemed  to  have  a  strong  impres- 
sion that  things  were  by  no  means  settled. 
Peace,  he  said,  had  been  dictated  to  the 
French,  but  not  accepted  by  them.  The  mis- 
tress of  the  house  said,  we  must  not  expect 
much  in  so  poor  a  place  as  St.  Trou,  which 
she  called  a  village.  What  we  had,  however, 
was  excellent  in  its  kind,  —  chops,  fricassee, 
and  omelet.  The  beds  were  good,  and  the 
charges  more  reasonable  than  had  been  any- 
where else.  I  have  called  her  the  mistress, 
because  we  supposed  her  to  be  so,  but  it 
appeared  afterwards  that  the  mistress  was 
ill,  and  there  was  a  Beguine  in  the  house 
nursing  her  —  from  a  Beguinage  near  the 
town. 

Thursday,  19  Oct. 

Our  chamber  was  a  very  large  room  with  a 
black  floor,  the  hearth  a  singular  composition, 
being,  if  Edith  May  and  I  were  not  both  mis- 
taken, made  of  rushes  (like  a  chair-bottom) 
[      200      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

or  of  twine  (we  could  not  ascertain  which) 
plaited  in  a  diaper  pattern  and  thickly  painted. 
We  had  a  quilt  of  yellow  sattin.  Here,  and 
almost  everywhere,  the  tables  are  covered  with 
an  oiled  marble-paper,  set  in  a  wooden  border. 
The  tower  with  the  chimes  stands  in  the  great 
Place  ;  it  bears  the  date  of  1606,  and  is  painted 
black  and  white.  There  is  also  a  large  church 
by  which  some  fine  old  flat  tombstones  were 
lying,  broken  and  half  covered  with  filth. 
Large  blocks  of  coal  were  to  be  seen  in  the 
shops  as  if  sold  by  weight. 

Three  leagues  to  Tirlemont.  By  the  way 
we  noticed  an  odd  contrivance  for  the  poultry. 
Some  six  or  more  feet  from  the  ground  there 
was  a  hole  in  the  wall,  to  serve  as  a  door  for 
them ;  and  sticks  were  driven  into  the  wall,  at 
intervals,  like  the  steps  of  a  ladder,  for  them 
to  ascend  by.  We  saw  this  at  so  many  farms 
that  it  is  plainly  the  custom  here,  and  I  sup- 
pose it  is  found  to  secure  them  from  vermin. 
Some  mud  houses  here  have  the  whole  side 
which  is  most  exposed  to  the  weather  covered 
with  thatch.  The  villages  are  not  by  the 
roadside ;  the  churches  very  numerous  every- 
[      201      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

where.  Here  I  saw  a  Eoyston  crow,  —  or 
what  I  took  to  be  one,  —  a  crow  with  the  head 
and  wings  black,  and  the  body  grey.  We  past 
over  Dnmouriez'  field  of  battle,  in  a  wide  and 
open  country. 

The  gate  thro*  which  we  entered  has  been 
painted  Orange  colour  in  compliment  to  the 
new  sovereign.  Much  as  I  may  approve  the 
old  cry  of  Orange  haven,  I  certainly  do  not 
like  an  orange-coloured  town  gate.  The  Plat 
d'Etain  here  is  a  good  hotel.  The  Landlord 
remembers  the  battle  in  1792,  when  a  fourth 
part  of  the  town  was  destroyed  by  an  explo- 
sion ;  and  this  house  had  all  its  windows  shat- 
tered, tho'  far  enough  from  the  spot  to  escape 
any  greater  injury.  This  would  account  for 
the  wide  space,  and  the  number  of  fields  within 
the  circuit  of  its  old  walls.  But  no  part  of 
Europe  has  suffered  so  frequently,  or  so  se- 
verely, from  war  as  these  poor  countries,  —  of 
which  Tirlemont  and  St.  Trou  and  Tongres 
are  melancholy  proofs,  —  and  the  latter  place 
especially,  which  is  the  more  melancholy,  be- 
cause it  is  a  famous  and  a  venerable  name. 

There  is  a  fine  church  at  Tirlemont,  not  a 
[       202       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

little  disfigured  by  the  buildings  which  are 
stuck  against  its  sides.  Buying  some  apples 
I  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  woman  who 
sold  them  spoke  English.  I  bought  also  two 
coloured  prints,  designed  for  children,  of  the 
very  coarsest  kind,  but  not  a  little  curious, 
representing  in  a  series  of  compartments,  one 
the  history  of  Gulliver,  the  other  that  of  Tom 
Thumb,  with  Flemish  verses  under  each. 
Both  stories  are  greatly  corrupted.  Grulliver 
is  made  to  die  in  Brobdignag  by  falling  into 
a  tureen  of  soup,  and  Tom  Thumb  by  falling 
into  a  pond  from  a  tree  where  he  has  climbed 
to  steal  apples. 

The  trappings  of  the  horses  are  in  general 
very  handsomely  ornamented  with  brass  nails. 
The  leaders  in  these  huge  waggons  are  usually 
three  abreast ;  the  shaft  horses  in  pairs.  The 
cattle  seem  to  be  very  well  used.  I  have  seen 
neither  instance  nor  marks  of  cruelty  to  an 
animal;  and  I  fear  no  man  could  travel  a 
day  in  England  without  perceiving  both. 

When  a  nosegay  is  stuck  in  a  cart  or  wag- 
gon, it  is  understood  as  signifying  that  what 
is  for  sale  there  is  of  the  best  quality. 
[      203      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  L 

Two  leagues  to  Louvain.  Here,  as  at  Tirle- 
mont,  there  are  fields  and  bams  within  the 
old  walls ;  but  Louvain  is  still  a  very  large  and 
populous  city ;  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century  (the  golden  age  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries) it  was  the  largest  city  on  this  side  the 
Alps.  We  had  seen  no  dogs  used  in  draught 
since  we  left  Brussels,  till  we  arrived  here. 
The  Church  of  St.  Paul's  here  has  a  most 
magnificent  pulpit;  one  side  represents  the 
Conversion  of  St.  Paul,  the  other  St.  Peter 
sitting,  with  the  keys.  These  Pulpits  in  the 
Low  Countries  I  suppose  to  be  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  carving  in  the  world ;  nor  indeed  is 
sculpture  anywhere  to  be  seen  upon  so  large  a 
scale  of  design  and  execution.  Chaire  de  la 
Verite  they  call  the  pulpit,  a  felicitous  name, 
considering  the  enormous  fables  which  have 
been  delivered  from  it  in  Roman  Catholick 
countries.  I  have  in  my  possession  Catholick 
sermons  containing  stories  quite  as  amus- 
ing—  and  quite  as  true  —  as  any  in  Mother 
Goose. 

At  our  Inn  here,  the  Hotel  de  Cologne, 
there  is  the  same  luxury  of  plate-glass  win- 
[      204      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

dows  as  at  Brussels.  The  windows  every- 
where fasten  as  they  do  at  Lisbon,  with  a  large 
bolt,  which  presses  up  at  one  end  and  down  at 
the  other,  by  turning  a  handle  in  the  middle. 
But  the  workmanship  is  much  better.  We 
had  some  of  the  Peterman  beer  for  which  tiiis 
place  is  famous,  at  dinner:  finer  I  never 
tasted ;  it  is  soft,  nuld,  and  strong  as  Burton 
Ale,  but  neither  sweet  nor  cloying. 

The  Town-House  at  Louvain  was  weU  char- 
acterised by  Mrs.  Vardon,  who  exclaimed  at 
first  seeing  it  that  it  was  like  a  trinket,  —  ac- 
tually an  architectural  bijou.  The  ornaments 
are  so  exquisitely  rich  that  it  looks  like  a  thing 
of  ivory,  or  fiUagree  designed  for  a  Lady's 
dressing-table.  There  is  a  very  remarkable 
picture  in  one  of  the  rooms,  which  our  guide 
(a  most  incompetent  one,  for  he  could  neither 
understand  us,  nor  make  us  understand  him) 
ascribed  to  Quintin  Matsys.  A  Guardian 
Angel  is  pointing  out  the  Crucified  Saviour  in 
Heaven  to  two  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  who 
seem  clinging  to  his  knees ;  another  boy,  who 
holds  a  cross,  is  looking  wistfully  to  the  Angel, 
but  the  Devil  has  his  leg  in  a  chain.  He 
[      205      ] 


JOURNAL 

could  tell  us  nothing  of  the  history  of  the 
piece,  hut  it  plainly  relates  to  some  family 
unhappily  divided  in  those  religious  troubles 
of  which  this  Painter  saw  the  commencement 
and  progress. 

I  set  out  in  search  of  the  Beguinage,  and 
after  a  long  walk  was  conducted  to  the  smaller 
one,  for  there  are  two  in  this  city.  This  proved 
to  be  a  single,  narrow  street,  closed  at  the  one 
end.  There  are  no  gardens,  and  the  houses 
are  like  those  at  Ghent,  but  not  so  large.  A 
Beguine  whom  I  met  and  accosted  told  me 
there  were  only  three  sisters  here,  the  apart- 
ments being  occupied  by  Nxms  formerly  be- 
longing to  the  suppressed  orders.  The  larger 
Beguinage,  she  said,  had  seventy  sisters.  But 
that  was  half  an  hour's  walk,  and  time  did  not 
allow  me  to  get  there. 

Tho'  this  large  city  is  the  seat  of  a  Univer- 
sity, I  could  not  discover  that  it  contained  a 
decent  bookseller's  shop.  At  the  best  I  could 
find,  I  picked  out  from  a  very  few  books  three 
which  I  was  glad  to  obtain.  The  one  a  Gazet- 
teer of  Louvaine  and  what  are  called  its  May- 
eries,  published,  I  see,  in  successive  years  as  an 
[      206      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

appendage  to  some  Almanack,  but  collected 
into  a  volume  —  of  a  very  unpretending  and 
useful  kind.  Another  is  the  Acta  of  King 
St.  Ferdinand,  in  a  good  octavo,  with  the 
prints  reduced,  published  in  this  form  by  the 
Bollandists,  before  the  volume  of  their  great 
work,  which  includes  his  day,  was  ready.  This 
belongs  to  my  Spanish  collection.  The  third 
relates  to  Irish  or  Scotch  Ecclesiastical  his- 
tory :  "  Sancti  Kumoldi  Martyris  Inclyti, 
Archiepiscopi  Dubliniensis,  Mechliniensium, 
Apostoli,  Advocati  steriliiun  conjugum,  agri- 
colarum,  piscatorum  institorum,  et  hairgen- 
tium,  Acta  Martyrium,  Liturgia  Antiqua," 
etc.,  by  Hugo  Vardous,  an  Irish  Francis- 
can, 1662.  It  had  been  a  presentation  copy 
from  the  Author.  The  book  appears  to  con- 
tain a  good  deal  of  research  into  the  dark 
as  well  as  the  fabulous  ages  of  Scotland  and 
Ireland. 

Friday,  20  Oct. 

J  IVE  leagues  to  Brussels.     On  the  way  Edith 

May's  quick  eyes  discovered  the  small  or  Lil- 

liput  cabbages  growing  like  warts  upon  the 

[      207      ] 


JOURNAL 

stalks  of  what  seemed  common  cabbages ;  and 
no  doubt  they  are  an  artificial  product.  The 
road  commands  a  most  extensive  prospect,  such 
as  the  slightest  elevation  gives  over  a  plain 
country.  The  cathedral  at  Mechlin  was  dis- 
tinctly seen,  and  Antwerp,  we  were  agreed,  is 
visible  to  good  eyes  in  clear  weather.  We 
left  Laeken  on  the  right,  and  reached  our  old 
quarters  at  Brussels  to  dinner. 

During  this  tour,  wherever  we  went,  the  blue 
frock  continued  to  be  the  costume  of  the  com- 
mon man,  and  that  of  the  women  has  nowhere 
varied  from  what  we  saw  at  Ostend.  The 
men  of  the  better  orders  wear  caps  more  fre- 
quently than  hats ;  these  caps  are  mostly  of 
grey  or  black  cloth,  with  a  front  of  the  same, 
or  of  horn,  like  a  jockey's  cap ;  or  they  are 
of  velvet,  and  have  generally  then  a  circle  of 
grey  worsted  (perhaps  it  may  be  Astrachan 
lamb-skin,  real  or  imitated)  at  the  bottom. 

The  swine  are  as  miserably  lean  as  in  Ireland, 
—  or  leaner,  if  that  can  be.  I  called  them 
not  pigs,  but  greypigs,  for  as  some  humorists 
in  England  have  trained  pigs  to  point,  here 
they  might  use  them  for  coursing. 
[      208      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

Saturday,  21  Oct. 

yjjJB.  chance  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Nash  hav- 
ing by  this  time  been  ripened  by  mutual  good- 
will into  incipient  intimacy,  he  offered  to  make 
some  Waterloo  sketches  for  my  intended 
poem,  and  for  that  purpose  we  returned  this 
day  to  the  field  of  battle,  leaving  the  Var- 
dons  to  pass  the  day  with  their  Brussels 
friends.  We  set  out  a  little  after  seven,  the 
two  Ediths  with  Nash  and  myself  in  the  open 
carriage,  Koster  and  Miss  Foreman  on  horse- 
back. 

The  forest  of  Soigny  is  very  striking.  It 
has  none  of  the  beauty  of  a  natural  forest ; 
but  because  it  is  an  artificial  one,  it  has  a 
character  of  its  own,  not  always  becoming  im- 
pressive where  it  is  upon  a  large  scale.  The 
trees  are  so  straight  that  they  look  as  if  they 
had  grown  under  the  superintendence  of  a 
Drill  Sergeant.  An  oak  which  stands  on  the 
verge  of  the  forest,  where  it  has  room  to  spread 
its  arms  in  natural  growth,  really  appeared 
like  a  deformed  and  monstrous  being,  from  its 
utter  unlikeness  to  all  the  other  trees.  They 
[      209      ] 


JOURNAL 

stand  in  many  parts  so  close  that  the  inter- 
stices look  only  like  straight  lines  of  green 
light.  The  road  is  in  many  parts  raised  con- 
siderably above  the  level  of  the  forest.  La- 
bouring men  and  boys  were  seated  by  the  way- 
side at  breakfast,  and  spreading  their  dark 
brown  bread  ^  with  a  white  substance,  which 
whether  it  be  lard,  or  a  sort  of  inferior  butter, 
or  curd,  we  have  not  yet  learnt,  tho'  we  have 
frequently  seen  it  thus  used.  Saw  one  horse 
with  a  comb  attached  to  the  trappings  of  his 
neck ;  another  with  red  tassels  pendant  over 
his  face,  which  must  be  useful  against  the 
flies. 

Breakfasted  at  "Waterloo.  Among  other  ves- 
sels in  the  kitchen  there  were,  to  my  no  small 
astonishment,  six  bright  and  shining  pewter 
chamber-pots  hanging  up,  —  evidently  for  or- 
namental display,  when  not  on  service.  Edith 
May  tells  me  there  were  similar  ornaments  in 
the  kitchen  at  Tongres.     The  inner  room,  in 

^  This  bread  is  dark  enongh  to  explain  the  Datch  word 
for  a  favourite  child,  or  one  cockered,  as  we  should  say,  and 
brought  up  on  dainties.  It  is  wittebroodskind  —  or  kindje  — 
a  white-bread  child. 

[       210       ] 


JO  U  R  N  A  li 

whicb  a  noble  wood  fire  was  kindled  for  us, 
contained  four  beds,  —  which  no  doubt  has 
been  sadly  occupied  after  the  battle.  On  the 
chimney-piece  was  a  tuft  of  artificial  flowers, 
something  of  the  same  kind  more  artificial 
still  being  an  imitation  of  flowers  made  with 
feathers,  and  with  gilt  foil  for  the  stamens,  — 
and  two  hyacinth  glasses  of  blue  and  gold. 
There  is  generally  a  sort  of  vallance  or  little 
canopy,  about  a  quarter  of  a  yard  deep,  over 
the  chimney-piece  in  these  countries.  The 
cieling  of  the  room  was  of  black  boards,  the 
floor  of  bricks,  and  sanded;  and  under  the 
window  was  a  hole  to  let  the  water  out  when 
the  room  is  washed.  Knowing  at  what  sort 
of  house  we  should  make  our  first  halt,  we 
took  our  own  tea  rather  than  trust  to  the 
chance  of  finding  coffee  there ;  toasted  bread 
by  help  of  a  gridiron,  which  the  people  of  the 
house  brought  us  for  that  purpose ;  and  break- 
fasted well  as  well  as  merrily. 

After  breakfast  Nash  made  a  sketch  of  the 
Church,  and  I  copied  the  inscription  over  its 
portico,  —  interesting  enough  for  its  subject 
and  its  semi-pagan  form. 

C      211      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

D.  O.  M. 

ET  D.  D.  JOSEPHO   ET  ANNAE, 

HOC    SACELLUM, 

PBO  DESIDERATA   DOMmnS   CATHOLICIS 

CAROLI   2.  HISP.  IND.  REGIS,  BELG.   PRINCIPIS 

PROSAPIA, 

FRAN.  ANT.  AGURTO.  MARCHIO.  DE  CASTANACA 

BELG.  GUBERNTOR. 

Cause  enough  indeed  had  these  poor  coun- 
tries to  pray  that  that  most  pitiable  poor  king 
might  leave  issue  to  succeed  him  !  There  is  a 
good  portrait  of  this  poor  king  in  the  "  Acta 
S.  Ferdinandi  Kegis,"  which  I  bought  yester- 
day ;  it  is  so  truly  characteristic  that  it  alone 
would  make  the  book  valuable.  I  never  saw 
a  more  compleat  union  of  gentleness,  melan- 
choly, and  imbecility. 

There  are  two  monuments  in  the  Church  to 
the  English  Officers ;  one  to  those  of  the  first 
foot  guards,  the  other  to  those  of  the  15th 
Hussars,  both  at  the  cost  of  their  brother 
officers.  They  are  of  plain  white  marble  with 
a  narrow  black  edge.  I  copied  both  inscrip- 
tions. The  churchyard  is  a  square  unadorned 
£       212       ] 


JOURNAL 

enclosure,  between  two  and  three  hundred 
yards  behind  the  Church,  or  rather  ChapeL 
Several  graves  were  shown  us  on  the  way  be- 
tween, on  the  edge  of  the  forest,  where  men 
had  been  buried  who  died  of  their  wounds. 
In  the  churchyard  are  two  flat  tombstones, 
close  together,  and  both  on  the  ground.  One 
to  Colonel  de  Langrehr  of  the  Bremen  corps ; 
the  other  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Richard  Fitz- 
gerald of  the  2d  Life  Guards.  The  children 
who  acted  as  our  guides  here  said  his  body 
had  been  buried  on  the  field,  but  was  removed 
hither  by  his  widow;  and  that  it  was  the 
trunk  only,  the  head  having  been  carried  off 
by  a  cannon-ball.  I  copied  these  epitaphs 
also.  There  was  but  one  other  tombstone  in 
the  cemetery :  it  was  that  of  an  inhabitant  of 
the  village ;  and  this,  tho'  it  has  been  made 
some  years,  is  not  yet  fixed,  only  laid  upon 
some  temporary  supporters. 

I  enquired  at  the  Inn  if  there  were  any 
remembrance  in  the  village  of  an  affair  here 
in  1705,  when  the  Duke  of  Marlborough 
gained  some  advantage  upon  this  very  ground, 
but  could  not  learn  that  there  was  any  recol- 
C      213      ] 


JOURNAL 

lection  of  it.  They  axe  so  used  to  such  things 
in  these  countries  that  nothing  short  of  a  gen- 
eral action  leaves  any  impression  upon  them  ; 
but  I  should  add  that  the  man  of  the  house 
both  speaks  and  understands  French  worse 
than  any  person  whom  we  have  met  with  who 
pretended  to  do  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

Lord  Uxbridge's  leg,  the  most  remarkable 
relic  of  modern  times,  is  deposited  in  the  gar- 
den of  a  house  opposite  the  Inn,  and  on  the 
same  side  of  the  road  as  the  Chapel,  —  the 
nearest  house  to  it  on  the  Brussels  side.  The 
owner  of  the  house  is  as  proud  of  possessing 
it  as  a  true  Catholic  would  be  of  an  imdoubted 
leg  of  his  patron  Saint.  The  figure,  manner, 
and  earnest  enthusiasm  of  this  Leg- worshipper 
were  in  the  highest  degree  comic.  I  accosted 
him  hat  in  hand,  and  with  the  best  French  I 
coidd  muster  (which  is  bad  enough.  Heaven 
knows),  but  as  much  courtesy  as  if  I  had  been 
French  by  birth  and  breeding,  requested  per- 
mission to  visit  the  spot.  He  led  us  to  a  little 
mound  in  his  garden,  which  is  in  front  of  the 
house.  The  mound  is  about  three  or  four  feet 
in  diameter,  and  of  proportionate  elevation 
C      214      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  L 

(sounding  words  should  be  used  on  great  oc- 
casions), and  in  the  centre  of  it  is  a  tuft  of 
Michaehnas  daisies,  at  this  time  in  blossom. 
The  leg,  he  told  us,  had  been  at  first  interred 
behind  the  house.  But  the  Wife  of  my  Lord 
has  requested  him  to  plant  a  tree  which  should 
mark  the  spot;  and  he,  considering  that  a 
tree  behind  the  house,  which  was  not  private 
ground,  might  be  very  probably  injured  or  de- 
stroyed by  boys,  had  removed  the  leg  into  his 
own  garden,  and  there  deposited  it  in  a  proper 
box  or  coffin.  The  Michaelmas  daisy  was  a 
mere  temporary  ornament.  In  November  he 
should  plant  the  tree ;  it  was  to  be  "  un  saule^ 
—  English  willow." —  "  Oui,  Monsieur,'*  I 
replied,  ^^  f  entends,  —  Varhre  larmoyant ;  the 
weeping  willow.  It  will  be  very  picturesque 
and  pathetic."  —  The  whole  thing  is  so  ridicu- 
lously comic  that  I  hope  no  foolish  person  will 
hint  to  him  that  the  laurel  might  be  more  ap- 
propriate. He  had  composed  an  epitaph  for 
the  leg,  he  said,  which  was  then  in  the  stone- 
cutter's hands  ;  but  he  had  a  copy  of  it.  Of 
course  I  requested  to  be  favoured  with  the 
perusal ;  and  having  perused  it  with  due  grav- 
[      215      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

ity,  solicited  permission  to  transcribe  it  also. 
Upon  this  he  presented  me  with  the  copy,  and 
I  then  perceived  that  he  had  several  other 
copies,  ready  to  be  disposed  of  in  like  manner. 
Here  follows  the  Epitaph,  being  I  believe 
unique  in  its  kind :  — 

Ci  est  enterre'e  la  Jambe  de  L^Ulustre,  brave  et  vailUmt 
Comte  Uxbridge,  Lieutenant  General,  Commandant  en 
Chef  la  Cavalerie  Anglaise,  Beige  et  Hollandoise  ;  blesse 
le  18  Juin,  1815,  en  la  memorable  battaille  de  Waterloo : 
qui  par  son  heroisme  a  concouru  au  triomphe  de  la  cause 
du  Genre  humain,  glorieusement  decidee  par  I'eclatante 
victoire  du  dit  jour. 

I  did  not  present  him  with  my  own  Epitaph 
upon  the  same  subject  in  return. 

This  is  the  Grave  of  Lord  Uxbridge's  leg : 
Pray  for  the  rest  of  his  body,  I  beg. 

He  was  too  proud  of  having  such  a  deposit  in 
his  garden,  too  happy,  and  too  serious  in  his 
happiness  for  such  a  jest  to  have  been  allow- 
able. He  took  us  into  the  house  and  shewed 
US  the  stain  of  blood  upon  two  chairs,  telling 
us  Lady  Uxbridge  had  desired  it  might  never 
be  washed  out.  And  he  called  for  the  boot, 
C      216      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

remarking  as  he  displayed  it,  "Voila  quel 
petit  pie  pour  si  grand  homme !  "  —  According 
to  his  account,  some  dozen  surgeons  assisted 
at  the  operation,  —  which  I  do  not  believe, 
because  if  the  surgeons  at  hand  had  been  fifty- 
fold  more  numerous  than  they  were,  there 
would  even  then  have  been  fifty  times  as  much 
work  as  they  could  all  have  performed.  It 
was  amputated  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and 
they  were  ten  minutes  about  it,  his  Lordship 
never  uttering  an  expression  of  pain. 

The  Forest  extends  farther  on  the  East 
(that  is  the  left)  side  of  the  road,  than  on 
the  West.  To  the  end  of  the  forest  from 
Waterloo  is  a  distance  which  we  were  thirteen 
minutes  in  driving  at  a  regular  jog-trot  pace ; 
from  that  termination  to  Mont  St.  Jean  fifteen 
more,  and  another  fifteen  from  thence  to  the 
Belle  Alliance ;  La  Haye  Sainte  being  about 
halfway  between  the  two  latter  places,  as 
nearly  as  may  be.  There  was  therefore  no 
fighting  within  two  miles  and  a  half  of  Wa- 
terloo. 

At  Mont  St.  Jean  the  wells  are  in  some  of 
the  houses,  —  a  door  opening  directly  upon  it. 
[      217      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

This  must  be  for  the  double  purpose  of  secu- 
rity and  cleanliness.  Our  guide  seemed  de- 
lighted at  recognizing  us  as  we  drove  past, 
tho'  his  services  were  not  needed  on  this  second 
visit.  We  left  the  carriage  and  the  two  horses 
at  La  BeUe  Alliance,  and  crost  the  fields  to 
Hougoumont,  taking  a  boy  with  us  to  carry 
our  provisions.  The  Gardener  gladly  bade  us 
welcome  here.  Mr.  Nash  established  himself 
by  the  house,  to  the  left  of  the  entrance, 
chusing  a  point  of  view  in  which  the  Chapel 
is  the  prominent  object  with  the  adjoining 
ruins  to  the  right ;  and  while  he  was  thus  em- 
ployed, we  reconnoitred  the  ground  a  second 
time,  at  leisure. 

I  now  discovered  in  the  garden  a  sun-dial 
cut  in  box,  but  having  been  neglected  and 
allowed  to  grow  in  its  own  way  since  the  action. 
I  should  not  have  perceived  what  it  had  been, 
if  the  wooden  gnomon  had  not  caught  my  eye, 
and  induced  me  to  examine  the  circular  bed 
in  which  it  stood.  It  is  surprising  to  see  how 
many  small  trees  have  been  destroyed  in  the 
wood,  and  in  a  row  beside  the  path,  at  the  end 
of  the  premises.  There  can  be  no  better  proof 
[      218      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

how  thickly  the  shot  must  have  fled.  The 
owner  of  the  estate,  a  man  of  eighty-six,  who 
resides  at  Nivelles,  has  just  sold  the  wood  for 
felling,  and  wishes  to  dispose  of  the  whole 
property.  I  wish  it  might  be  allowed  to  re- 
main untouched,  that  the  ruins  themselves 
might  remain  as  the  best  monument  of  the 
brave  men  who  are  buried  underneath  them. 

Mr.  Nash  made  a  second  sketch,  from  the 
door  of  the  Chapel,  comprising  the  interior  of 
the  ruins ;  and  another  of  the  Mansion  look- 
ing at  its  entrance.  When  making  this,  his 
seat  was  placed  on  the  mound  where  the  burnt 
remains  of  the  Frenchmen  are  covered,  and 
the  children  who  beg  here  with  the  most  in- 
vincible pertinacity  actually  offered  him  for 
sale  some  calcined  bones  which  they  had  raked 
out  of  a  hole. 

Leaving  the  ladies  here,  I  walked  with  Ros- 
ter to  Papelote;  which  is  a  large  enclosed 
farm  and  dweUing-house  like  Hougoumont, 
and  is  perhaps  the  most  picturesque  place  of 
the  two,  tho'  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
so  recently  inhabited  as  the  mansion  of  a 
wealthy  owner.  Had  these  short  days  per- 
C      219      ] 


JOURNAL 

mitted,  I  could  very  much  have  wished  that 
Mr.  Nash  should  have  made  some  sketches 
here  also.  They  are  rapidly  rebuilding  such 
parts  as  were  destroyed.  We  spoke  with  the 
owner,  a  plain  farmer  he  appeared  to  be. 
There  had  not  been  many  men  killed  here, 
but  a  great  many  wounded  Prussians  had  been 
carried  into  the  stables,  which  escaped  the  fire ; 
and  tho'  he  made  repeated  applications  at  all 
the  neighbouring  places  both  for  means  of 
transport  and  for  assistance,  they  had  neither 
to  give;  and  in  this  state  of  utter  abandon- 
ment did  Mr.  Werth  find  these  poor  creatures 
five  days  after  the  battle. 

At  some  little  distance  a  fine  plain  stone 
pillar  is  lying  on  the  ground,  apparently  from 
the  ruins  of  some  considerable  edifice. 

Hougoumont  and  Papelote  were  the  extreme 
points  of  the  British  position.  We  were 
three  quarters  of  an  hour  in  walking  from  one 
to  the  other,  at  a  brisk  pace ;  the  distance, 
therefore,  is  three  miles.  The  fighting  ex- 
tended no  farther  on  the  left  than  to  the  end 
of  the  Orchard,  some  two  hundred  yards.  The 
French  had  possession  of  it  for  some  quarter 
C      220      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

of  an  hour,  and  then  abandoned  it  upon  the 
appearance  of  the  Prussians.  Papelote  is  not 
upon  the  Wavre  road,  but  on  a  road  that 
turns  from  it  to  the  right.  The  road  from 
La  Haye  Sainte  to  this  turning  is  lined  with 
graves,  and  here  we  saw  more  bones  than  in 
any  other  part  of  the  field.  More  than  once 
the  air  told  us  in  how  hasty  and  insufficient  a 
manner  the  bodies  had  been  covered.  This 
labour,  and  an  enormous  labour  it  must  have 
been,  was  left  for  the  peasants  to  perform,  — 
for  their  own  sakes  and  at  their  own  cost.  It 
is  no  part  of  military  business  to  bury  the 
dead. 

As  we  walked  leisurely  over  the  field  on  our 
return,  the  inequalities  of  the  ground  were 
considerable  enough  to  make  us  take  a  little 
circuit  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  them.  Cer- 
tainly, therefore,  in  bad  weather,  they  would 
greatly  impede  the  cavalry.  It  was  an  affect- 
ing circumstance  to  observe  the  oats  which 
had  been  trodden  down  during  the  battle 
sprinpng  up  here  and  there.  The  young  corn 
was  shewing  itself  in  other  places. 

We  conversed  with  Lacoste,  who  has  ob- 
[      221       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

tained  so  much  notoriety  for  having  been  in- 
voluntary guide  to  Buonaparte.  He  was  with 
him  during  the  whole  day,  and  assured  us  that 
Buonaparte  never  charged  at  the  head  of  the 
cuirassiers,  nor  ever,  in  any  part  of  the  action, 
exposed  himself.  The  Observatory,  he  says, 
was  erected  by  the  Belgian  Government,  and 
there  are  three  or  four  such  along  the  frontier 
between  this  place  and  Ghent. 

Five  or  six  parties  of  English  arrived  while 
we  were  here.  We  afterwards  learnt  that  Dr. 
Ireland,  the  Dean  of  Westminster,  was  with 
one  of  them.  Among  the  pertinacious  chil- 
dren who  infest  this  place,  the  most  pertinar 
cious  was  a  girl  drest  in  a  good  and  apparently 
new  upper  dress,  which  was  carefuUy  pinned 
up  to  display  a  ragged  imder  petticoat,  and 
present  an  appearance  of  poverty.  It  will  be 
well  if  the  habits  of  greedy  mendicity,  in  which 
all  these  children  have  been  encouraged  by 
their  parents  and  by  the  shoals  of  visitors,  do 
not  render  them  shameless  and  worthless  thro' 
life.  There  is  a  noble  dog  at  Hougoumont, 
who  remained  there  with  the  Gardener,  his 
master,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  action, 
[       222       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  L 

barking  at  times  bravely,  as  if  he  would  will- 
ingly have  taken  part  in  it.  But  when  the 
French  got  possession  of  the  wood,  General 
Maitland  desired  the  man  to  get  ofif  while  he 
could,  lest  the  enemy,  if  he  fell  into  their  hands, 
should  put  him  to  death  as  one  who  had  given 
information  to  the  English. 

It  was  dark  before  we  returned  to  Brus- 
sels: some  apprehension  was  expressed  as  if 
there  might  be  robbers  in  the  forest  (for 
whom  it  certainly  affords  fine  cover)  ;  and  at 
the  gate  we  were  questioned  concerning  our 
passports.  * 

The  women  in  this  country  take  a  much 
greater  part  in  business  than  they  do  in  Eng-» 
land.  Very  commonly  they  keep  their  hus- 
bands' accounts,  they  are  quite  as  active  in  the 
shops,  and  I  am  told  that  it  is  not  uncommon 
for  them  to  have  the  management  of  the  con- 
cern. There  must  be  advantages  in  this,  as 
well  as  objections  to  it ;  and  I  am  inclined  to 
think  the  advantages  predominate. 

The  houses  very  much  resemble  those  in 
Spain  and  Portugal  as  to  the  entrance,  doors, 
etc.,  —  in  fact,  the  Spanish  fashion  in  building 
[       223       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

them  still  prevails.  They  are  often  coloured 
of  a  light  green.  Throughout  Flanders  the 
favourite  colour  for  doors  and  window-shutters 
(which  all  open  outwards)  is  grass-green,  and 
nothing  can  give  a  more  chearful  appearance. 
The  doors  of  good  houses  have  generally  a 
brazen  knob,  or  handle  (which  is  a  Bristol 
fashion),  fixed  in  a  brazen  star.  The  stables 
are  all  without  stalls,  which  makes  them  cooler 
and  cleaner.  Hooks  are  fixed  on  the  roofs  of 
the  houses  to  secure  ladders  when  laid  there 
for  the  purpose  of  repairs.  The  form  of  the 
common  saw  here  is  like  that  of  a  turning 
saw. 

t 

Sunday y  22  Oct. 

W ISHING  to  see  Antwerp,  which  the  Vardons 
had  seen,  we  left  them  at  Brussels,  where  they 
were  to  remain  this  day  and  meet  us  to-morrow 
evening  at  Ghent.  Mr.  Nash  accompanied  us. 
On  the  way  we  crost  the  Allee  Verte,  and  had 
a  good  view  of  the  gardens  at  Laeken,  and 
the  back  of  the  palace,  which  is  certainly  most 
finely  situated.  A  little  beyond  is  a  fine  villa, 
with  long  covered  walks  and  jetting  fountains. 
[      224      ] 


JOURNAL 

The  covered  walk  is  better  in  a  wanner  cK- 
mate,  and  there  it  is  perfectly  delightful,  —  a 
natural  cloister,  perfumed  by  orange,  lemon, 
or  jessamine  blossoms,  or  enriched  with  clus- 
ters of  grapes.  I  like  fountains,  and  think 
we  have  done  ill  in  discarding  them  from  the 
English  garden.  The  sound  is  always  sooth- 
ing, and  in  a  sultry  day  they  produce  the  sense 
as  well  as  the  association  of  coolness  and 
freshness.  We  saw  some  splendid  trekschuits, 
tho'  perhaps  none  so  handsome  as  that  which 
plies  between  Bruges  and  Ghent.  They  look 
more  like  Chinese  junks  than  European  ves- 
sels. The  barges  have  on  each  side  a  large 
moveable  fin,  which  prevents  them  from  falling 
to  windward ;  it  is  no  doubt  borrowed  from 
the  fin  of  a  fish,  and  is  shaped  and  used  like 
them. 

We  past  thro'  Vilvorde,  where  there  is  an 
immense  House  of  Correction,  large  enough 
to  accommodate  six  thousand  criminals  with 
separate  apartments.  It  is  probably  the 
largest  edifice  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  and 
prisoners  are  sent  there  from  all  parts  of  the 
Low  Countries.  Vilvorde  is  remarkable  to  a 
[      225      ] 


JOURNAL 

Protestant,  and  more  especially  to  an  English- 
man, on  another  account,  as  being  the  place 
where  Tindal  suffered  martyrdom.  He  was 
betrayed  by  an  English  Catholic,  who  was  a 
student  at  Louvain,  and  the  Clergy  of  that 
University  delivered  him  over  to  the  secular 
arm,  —  to  be  strangled  and  burnt.  The  town 
is  still  Catholic,  and  those  of  its  inhabitants 
who  are  not  unbelievers  would,  I  have  no 
doubt,  at  this  day  justify  his  execution,  —  such 
is  the  unmitigated  and  immitigable  spirit  of 
this  abominable  superstition.  More  allow- 
ance, however,  is  to  be  made  for  its  intolerance 
in  the  Netherlands  than  in  any  other  part  of 
Europe. 

The  acacia  is  a  very  common  tree  here. 

Four  leagues  from  Brussels  to  Mechlin,  or 
Malines,  as  it  is  here  called.  The  public  room 
at  the  Cour  Imperial  was  hung  with  embossed 
leather,  of  which  the  greater  part  of  the  ground 
was  covered  with  gilding  :  I  never  saw  so  mag- 
nificent a  remnant  of  old  times.  The  Cathe- 
dral Tower  is  remarkable  (that  is,  it  appeared 
so  to  me)  for  the  depth  of  its  projecting  parts. 
They  have  the  fashion  of  placing  only  the  skele- 
[       226       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

ton  of  a  dial  upon  their  church  clocks.  In 
particular  lights  the  figures  are  sufficiently 
distinct;  and  I  suppose  the  reason  for  the 
fashion  is  the  same  as  for  our  invisible  fences, 
that  the  clock  may  not  be  seen,  or  rather  seen 
as  little  as  possible,  unless  you  have  occasion 
to  look  at  it ;  being,  tho'  a  necessary  append- 
age to  a  church  tower,  no  ornament  to  it,  in 
the  opinion  of  these  architects.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  the  effect  of  these  skeleton  dials  is  by  no 
means  good.  Give  me  an  honest  clock  that 
shows  its  face,  and  a  quarter-boy  standing  at 
each  side. 

The  Cathedral  is  a  very  fine  one.  "Within, 
there  is,  according  to  the  usual  custom  in  the 
Low  Countries,  a  whole-length  statue  upon 
every  pillar  ;  and  there  is  also  a  second  regi- 
ment above  them ;  but  this  upper  range  con- 
sists of  Termes,  if  that  word  be  fitly  applied 
to  half-length  figures,  ending  in  a  pedestal 
which  makes  up  the  full  length  of  life.  There 
is  much  fine  marble  in  the  Church  and  withal 
some  imitations  of  marble,  always  provoking 
for  their  paltriness ;  for  example,  there  is  some 
carving  in  the  choir  painted  to  look  like  bas- 
[      227      ] 


JOURNAL 

relief,  in  white  marble,  and  some  monuments, 
which  you  think  very  fine  at  first  sight,  betray 
the  same  meanness  upon  nearer  inspection. 

Mechlin  is  at  present  the  great  seminary  for 
the  Clergy.  Many  of  the  students  were  walk- 
ing about  the  streets,  a  liberty  which  we  were 
told  was  only  allowed  there  on  Sundays.  Some 
of  the  houses  are  ornamented  with  gilding  on 
the  outside.  The  great  Place  has  a  singular 
building  which  I  suppose  to  be  the  Town-house, 
with  two  pointed  Flemish  towers  on  each  side 
the  gate.  The  Beguinage  here  is  of  some  ex- 
tent, and  resembles  that  at  Ghent,  except  that 
there  are  neither  courts  nor  gardens  before  the 
houses.  Mechlin  is  an  interesting  place,  which 
weU  deserves  to  be  seen  at  leisure. 

The  country  from  Brussels  to  this  city  is 
chiefly  in  pasture.  I  saw  a  pyebald  sheep  on 
the  way,  spotted  like  a  water  spaniel.  We 
have  seen  so  few  sports  among  the  boys,  that 
the  sight  of  a  party  at  ninepins  was  noticed  by 
us  as  something  extraordinary.  There  are  so 
many  public  gardens  in  the  vicinity  of  every 
large  town,  that  it  is  evidently  very  much  the 
custom  to  frequent  them. 

[      228      3 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

From  Mechlin  to  Antwerp  four  leagues. 
"We  past  thro'  a  large  village  halfway,  with 
a  large  church,  where  service  was  going  on 
at  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  church  was 
crowded.  The  congregation  consisted  wholly, 
as  it  appeared  to  us,  of  the  lower  ranks,  and 
very  many  sailors  among  them,  on  their  knees, 
in  much  apparent  devotion.  Both  here  and 
at  Vilvorde,  the  coachman  when  he  stopt  to 
water  his  horses  drove  under  a  large  open  shed, 
erected  to  afford  shelter  (should  it  be  needed) 
at  such  times. 

Near  Antwerp  there  are  some  extensive  pub- 
lic gardens,  which  have  been  so  recently  made 
that  they  have  not  yet  any  one  beauty  to  re- 
commend them;  you  merely  perceive  that 
they  will  be  places  for  recreation  when  the 
plants  shall  have  had  time  to  grow.  If  we 
were  correctly  informed,  they  are  laid  out  upon 
the  ground  where  a  considerable  part  of  the 
suburbs  stood,  which  was  pulled  down  by  the 
French.  Yet  to  this  bare  and  joyless  spot 
(as  we  should  have  deemed  it)  all  Antwerp 
and  his  wife  and  all  the  little  Antwerps  were 
crowding. 

[      229      ] 


JOURNAL 

Our  passports  were  required  as  we  entered, 
and  we  were  told  to  call  for  them  at  the  Po- 
lice Office  between  the  hours  of  six  and  seven. 
Having  reached  the  Bear  Hotel,  we  asked  for 
a  private  room,  and  were  shewn  into  one  with 
a  stove  and  a  sanded  floor.  Dinner  was  or- 
dered at  six,  and  we  set  out  to  make  the  best 
use  of  two  hours'  daylight. 

The  first  place  to  which  the  Commissionaire 
led  us  was  the  Cathedral.  Its  celebrated  tower 
is  like  the  Town-house  at  Louvain,  a  piece 
of  architectural  trinketry ;  but  here,  to  my 
feelings  at  least,  the  trinketry  is  out  of  place. 
It  excited  surprize,  wonder,  and  perhaps  ad- 
miration ;  but  I  felt  that  grandeur  and  effect 
had  been  sacrificed.  You  must  be  near  enough 
to  see  the  lace-work  distinctly,  otherwise  the 
form  only  is  perceived,  which  has  neither  the 
solemn  massiveness  and  majesty  of  a  tower, 
nor  the  light  sky-pointing  beauty  of  a  spire. 
Surprizingly  beautiful,  however,  in  its  kind,  it 
is.  Charles  5  said  of  it  when  he  saw  it  first, 
that  it  ought  to  be  shut  up  in  a  case,  and  shewn 
only  once  a  year.  We  saw  it  under  the  most 
favourable  circumstances, — in  an  evening  light, 
[      230      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

against  a  clear  sky,  which  made  all  the  open 
parts  distmct. 

Perhaps  the  interior  has  lost  nothing  in  ef- 
fect from  having  been  mercilessly  stript  by 
the  Revolutionists  and  the  French ;  it  has  now 
the  naked  grandeur  of  an  English  cathedral. 
All  the  Images  have  been  destroyed  except 
one,  which  a  mechanic  of  the  town  purchased 
in  the  time  of  havoc,  preserved,  and  has  since 
replaced.  Of  six  and  thirty  chapels  which  it 
contained,  the  French  only  left  one.  They 
sold  the  brasses,  broke  the  marbles,  and  melted 
down  the  plate.  A  safer  method  of  inlaying 
monumental  stones  is  practised  here :  the  stone 
is  a  blueish  marble  and  the  letters,  armorial 
bearings,  and  ornaments  or  emblems  are  let  in 
in  white. 

The  Pulpit  is  poor  in  comparison  with  those 
which  we  have  lately  seen.  Four  figures  re- 
presenting the  four  parts  of  the  world  support 
it,  and  emblematic  birds  and  other  animals 
are  grouped  about  it.  The  great  picture  of 
Rubens  is  expected  to-morrow ;  others  have 
already  arrived  from  Paris  (for  which  honour 
and  praise  to  the  name  of  old  BlUcher),  and 
[      231      ] 


JOURNAL 

when  they  are  replaced  there  is  to  be  an  illu- 
mination and  a  day  of  public  rejoicing,  in 
which,  if  it  were  my  lot  to  be  present,  I  should 
partake  as  heartily  as  if  I  were  a  Boman  Catho- 
lic and  a  native  of  Antwerp. 

The  Commissionaire  was  now  leading  us  to- 
wards the  Docks,  but  we  had  so  little  daylight 
remaining  that  none  could  be  afforded  for  an 
object  of  no  great  interest  to  any  one  of  the 
party ;  so  he  turned  back  to  the  Musemn,  in 
all  the  avenues  to  which  there  was  an  abomi- 
nable and  sickening  stench  of  uncleanness 
from  the  cloacas.  Here  is  the  Chair  of  Ru- 
bens, so  inscribed,  and  decorated  with  a  laurel 
wreath  round  that  inscription,  which  is  always 
replaced  before  it  grows  sere.  Mr.  Nash,  as 
in  duty  bound,  kissed  the  chair.  A  Church 
which  under  the  French  has  been  appropri- 
ated for  the  use  of  the  Academy  of  Design, 
has  lately  been  emptied  of  its  pictures  that  it 
may  be  fitted  up  as  a  place  of  worship  for  the 
English.  The  Commissionaire  now  said  he 
would  take  us  to  a  Church  which  had  not  its 
equal  in  the  world ;  and  as  far  as  any  of  us 
had  seen  the  World,  he  was  right  in  his  boast. 
[      232      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

For  in  a  Court  belonging  to  the  Church  and 
adjoining  to  it,  half  the  scripture  history  is  re- 
presented by  figures  large  as  life,  and  coloured 
to  life  ;  and  at  the  end  is  a  huge  Calvary  built 
up  against  the  wall  of  the  Church,  and  made 
to  the  model  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the  two 
inventors,  we  were  told,  having  made  three 
joumies  to  Jerusalem,  in  order  that  the  plan 
might  be  perfectly  correct.  Then  statues,  let- 
tered B.  Jordanus  and  B.  Gimdisalvus,  are 
the  first  as  you  enter.  Hound  about  the  Sep- 
ulchre you  see  thro'  iron  grates  the  Souls  in 
Purgatory  praying  amid  the  flames,  whether 
the  beatified  artists  went  thither  also  to  make 
their  sketches  on  the  spot,  our  guide  did  not 
inform  us.  The  body  in  the  Sepulchre  is 
covered  with  a  white  silk  pall ;  you  look  at 
it  thro'  a  hole,  and  see  it  by  the  light  of  a 
lamp  within.  This  was  the  most  ridiculous 
puppet  show,  in  all  its  parts,  that  I  ever  saw. 
The  Dominican  Church  to  which  it  is  at- 
tached, has  a  good  picture  of  the  Descent  from 
the  Cross,  painted  some  seven  years  ago  at 
Rome,  by  an  artist  who  is  still  living,  and 
whose  name  sounded  to  our  ears  like  Seltz,  — 
[       233      ] 


JOURNAL 

perhaps  Schultz.  There  is  a  singular  clock 
over  the  entrance  to  the  Choir  ;  a  dart  in  the 
hand  of  an  Angel  points  to  the  hours  which 
are  marked  upon  a  revolving  globe.  The  Con- 
fessionals  in  this  Church  are  ranged  against 
the  wall  all  round,  and  have  statues  about 
them  of  dark  brown  wood,  large  as  life,  mak- 
ing a  terrific  appearance,  especially  as  we  saw 
them  when  the  evening  was  closing  fast. 

We  went  also  to  the  Church  of  St.  Jaques, 
which  is  exceedingly  rich  in  marble,  but  our 
reason  for  going  there  was  to  see  the  grave  of 
Rubens.  There  was  a  large  Beguinage  which 
the  French  destroyed,  because  the  site  was 
wanted  for  some  of  their  works.  The  Be- 
guines,  to  the  number  of  some  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred, are  now  lodged  in  a  Convent,  a  change 
made  for  the  worse.  There,  as  throughout 
these  countries,  they  are  much  respected ;  and 
they  are  said  not  to  be  poor.  The  great  street 
is  certainly  a  very  fine  one,  and  may  fairly 
be  ranked  with  those  at  Madrid  and  Oxford 
wherewith  it  is  compared.  That  at  Naples, 
which  is  named  with  them,  I  have  not  seen. 
Yet  the  Calle  de  Alcala  is  much  longer,  and 
E      234      ] 


JOURNAL 

terminates  more  finely  in  a  gateway,  and  the 
High  Street  at  Oxford  contains  much  finer 
buildings.     Water  is  flowing  under  the  street. 

As  we  had  asked  for  a  private  apartment, 
I  was  displeased  upon  our  return  at  finding 
a  great  fleshy,  florid  feUow,  who  looked  like 
an  Englishman,  seated  at  dinner  in  the  room 
which  we  had  engaged.  However,  he  soon 
took  his  departure  without  having  opened  his 
mouth  for  any  other  purpose  than  that  of  put- 
ting something  into  it,  and  when  the  book  was 
brought  for  us  to  enter  our  names  and  desig- 
nation, I  perceived  that  he  styled  himself  Doc- 
tor and  was  Irish.  The  door  of  the  stove 
when  it  was  opened  displayed  a  grating  within, 
so  as  to  allow  the  sight  of  a  fire,  which  makes 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  its  comforts. 

After  some  trouble  in  the  search  Koster 
found  out  our  trekschuit  acquaintance,  Mr. 
Sergeant,  and  brought  him  to  pass  the  re- 
mainder of  the  evening  with  us.  From  him 
we  heard  all  that  he  had  heard  or  knew  re- 
specting Antwerp.  He  told  us,  what  may 
weU  be  believed,  that  there  is  a  large  party  of 
Buonapartists  here,  for  Antwerp  is  one  of  the 
[      236      3 


JOURNAL 

few  places  which  derived  great  advantage 
from  his  policy,  and  that  the  late  Mayor,  for 
belonging  to  this  faction,  had  been  compelled 
to  resign  his  office  a  few  days  ago.  The  Eng- 
lish, he  said,  had  been  very  popular,  as  long 
as  there  were  other  troops  in  the  town ;  but 
now,  when  they  were  quartered  on  the  inhabit- 
ants, they  were  no  longer  liked,  and  the  people 
were  not  civil  to  them.  In  consequence  of 
this  marked  incivility,  many  officers  who  could 
afford  it  had  taken  lodgings,  to  the  great 
alarm  of  the  former  hosts,  who  are  thus  put 
in  fear  of  having  their  quarters  occupied  by 
less  scrupulous  guests.  The  firing  of  the  16th 
was  heard  here,  not  that  of  the  18th,  —  which, 
the  wind  being  in  an  opposite  direction,  was 
heard  at  Herve. 

A  Hanoverian  officer  assured  Sergeant  that 
the  German  officers  in  general  made  it  a  rule 
if  one  of  them  spoke  to  another  in  French 
to  knock  him  down,  and  that  such  a  blow 
was  not  to  be  resented.  They  had  deter- 
mined also  that  their  children  should  not 
learn  to  speak  the  language  of  their  mortal 
enemies. 

[      236      ] 


JOURNAL 

Sergeant  told  us  a  truly  characteristic  story 
of  his  own  countrymen.  A  fellow  was  brought 
before  his  father  for  having  been  one  of  the 
most  active  persons  in  a  desperate  riot  —  to 
which  indeed  his  appearance  bore  full  proof. 
He  however  protested  that  he  was  as  innocent 
as  a  babe  unborn.  "  AU  I  had  to  do  with  it, 
your  honour,  was  this.  As  I  was  walking 
along  thinking  of  nothing  at  all,  I  saw  a 
parcel  of  men  fighting;  so  I  only  took  my 
shillelah  to  help  one  of  the  parties,  and  cried 
out  as  I  ran  into  the  thick  of  them,  —  God 
grant  I  may  take  the  right  side." 

Monday,  23  Oct. 

VJuR  bedroom  was  very  comfortable,  and,  for 
the  first  time,  carpetted.  Sergeant,  having 
been  upon  duty  all  night,  called  upon  us  ac- 
cording to  appointment  at  half  after  six,  and 
took  us  to  the  citadel.  We  got  there  before 
the  drawbridge  was  lowered,  and  a  crowd  was 
waiting  for  admission,  among  whom  were  men 
who  had  slept  out  without  leave.  The  citadel 
is  to  the  S.  W.  of  the  town.  There  had  for- 
merly been  some  fine  trees  between  them,  which 
[      237      ] 


JOURNAL 

Carnot  cut  down,  and  our  men  had  hardly  yet 
cleared  them  out  of  the  ditches. 

The  carts  which  came  with  vegetables  to 
market  were  packed  with  remarkable  nicety. 
Everything  was  in  baskets,  resembling  in  shape 
our  strawberry  baskets,  and  containing,  I  sup- 
pose, a  certain  measure.  The  cart  was  Med 
with  them,  and  others  even  hung  round  the 
outside ;  so  that  there  was  nothing  more  to  do 
than  to  take  the  baskets  out  and  arrange  them 
in  the  market-place.  The  market  is  held  at 
the  top  of  the  great  street. 

Charges  at  the  Bear  were  high.  They  have, 
indeed,  everywhere  been  higher  than  they 
ought  to  be  in  a  land  which  is  overflowing 
with  plenty.  But  this  is  because  we  are 
English. 

The  Coachman  had  crossed  the  Scheldt  at 
seven  o'clock,  high  water  being  necessary 
either  for  embarking  or  landing  the  carriage. 
We  were  on  the  other  side  before  nine,  leav- 
ing Antwerp  thro'  a  gate  which  has  a  large 
statue  of  Neptune,  or  some  river  god, 
over  the  entrance.  The  Scheldt  we  thought 
to  be  about  as  wide  as  the  Thames  at  Green- 
[      238      J 


JOURNAL 

wich,  and  the  water  was  just  savoured  with 
salt.  The  city  and  its  towers  were  seen  to 
great  advantage  from  the  river  and  the  oppo- 
site shore.  The  ferry  was  cheap,  the  weather 
fine,  and  the  passage  to  T6te  de  Flandre  plea- 
sant ;  but  if  the  traveller  goes  from  Ghent  to 
Antwerp,  it  is  desirable  that  he  should  reach 
Tete  de  Flandre  early  enough  to  cross,  other- 
wise he  must  put  up  at  an  uncomfortable 
auberge. 

The  first  three  miles  of  our  journey  lay  over 
open  and  marshy  pasture  lands,  which  of  all 
kinds  of  country  is  the  dreariest.  We  then 
entered  upon  inclosures,  where  the  cultivation 
was  in  the  highest  degree  careful,  the  Pays  de 
Waas  indeed  being  the  most  highly  cultivated 
part  of  Flanders,  and  consequently  of  Chris- 
tendom. What  there  may  be  in  Asia  I  know 
not,  but  in  any  other  part  of  the  world  I  be- 
lieve there  is  nothing  can  be  compared  with 
this.  And  it  is  not  a  little  gratifying  to  per- 
ceive how  much  beauty  has  been  produced  by 
this  wise  and  careful  industry,  which  had 
utility  alone  in  view.  The  richest  parts  of 
England  present  nothing  more  woody,  tho'  the 
[      239      ] 


JOURNAL 

wood  here  consists  only  of  double  rows  of 
trees,  one  on  each  side  the  ditches  which 
divide  the  fields.  The  fields  are  for  the  most 
part  very  small — gardens  perhaps  they  ought 
rather  to  be  called,  both  from  their  size  and 
produce.  Every  one  is  slightly  raised  in  the 
middle,  with  an  inclination  which  is  just  suffi- 
cient to  be  perceptible  toward  the  sides.  This 
is  evidently  that  the  water  may  run  off,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  surface,  as 
has  foolishly  been  stated  by  writers  who  either 
had  not  seen  the  ground  or  did  not  reflect 
upon  what  they  were  saying. 

The  first  place  on  the  way  is  Beveren,  the 
chief  place  of  the  Pays  de  Beveren  (a  Barony 
in  old  times),  which  is  almost  surrounded  by 
the  Pays  de  Waas.  It  is  one  of  those  places 
called  in  French  a  franchise^  which  is  more 
than  a  village  and  less  than  a  town,  and  may 
perhaps  be  rendered  a  privileged  village.  In 
size,  however,  beauty  and  apparent  opulence 
and  comfort,  it  is  superior  to  half  the  towns 
we  have  seen.  The  next  place  to  which  we 
came,  St.  Nicholas,  is  of  the  same  description, 
but  it  is  a  finer  place,  and  has  indeed  the 
[      240      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

name  of  being  the  wealthiest  and  finest  village 
in  the  world.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  neat- 
ness and  visible  welfare  of  this  place,  and  be 
it  observed  that  this  is  not  a  prosperity  arising 
from  manufactures,  —  if  it  were  there  would 
be  none  of  this  neatness  and  quiet  comfort, 
— but  wholly  from  agriculture  and  the  trades 
which  every  community  requires. 

In  the  Great  Place  at  St.  Nicholas,  or  what 
in  England  might  be  called  the  Green,  is  a 
pole  with  a  bird  on  the  top,  which  the  men 
practise  in  shooting  at. 

As  we  drove  by  I  perceived  a  bookseller's 
shop;  thither  I  went  while  the  horses  were 
watered,  and  was  received  with  a  degree  of  cold- 
ness amounting  even  to  sour  incivility  by  the 
mistress;  the  cause  was  explained  when  she 
said  she  supposed  I  was  a  Frenchman,  and  the 
change  in  her  manner  was  instantaneous  when 
I  assured  her  she  was  mistaken ;  she  then  told 
us  that  her  husband  had  been  obliged  to  con- 
ceal his  most  valuable  books  when  the  French 
were  in  authority  there,  and  they  had  suffered 
much  from  that  detested  people.  Here  I 
bought  the  Lives  of  the  Admirals,  an  old,  popu- 
C      241      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

lar  compilation  in  Dutcli,  and,  overlooking 
the  inconvenience  of  transporting  it,  the  great 
history  of  the  War  in  the  Netherlands  down 
to  the  year  1600  by  Pieter  Bor,  in  four  huge 
folios.  We  were,  however,  sufficiently  amused 
with  that  inconvenience  as  we  carried  them 
off,  I  bearing  one  under  each  arm  in  triumph, 
and  Mr.  Nash  and  Koster  following  with  one 
each,  and  we  laughed  heartily  as  we  stowed 
them  in  the  coach,  even  the  Coachman  join- 
ing in  our  mirth. 

Beyond  this  place,  which  is  two  posts  and  a 
quarter  (about  twelve  miles)  from  Tete  de 
Flandre,  the  country  becomes  less  beautiful. 
In  some  places  where  the  soil  is  poorest  they 
cultivate  broom,  to  be  used  for  an  under-layer 
in  thatching.  No  com  of  any  kind  is  grown 
along  the  whole  way  from  the  Scheldt,  at  least 
we  saw  none  growing,  nor  vestige  of  any.  When 
we  had  left  the  pasture  land,  the  inclosures 
were  all  filled  with  culinary  herbs,  with  here 
and  there  a  few  fields  of  flax  and  woad.  In 
the  sandier  and  worse  soil  there  is  sometimes 
a  slip  of  woodland  by  the  wayside.  And  as 
we  advanced  farther  we  came  again  to  pastur- 
[      242      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

age.  An  old  man  was  making  twine  in  a 
manner  sufficiently  rude:  the  string,  which 
was  of  very  great  length,  was  past  over  nails 
driven  into  some  of  the  roadside  trees,  and 
a  boy  (probably  his  son)  turned  a  wheel  at 
the  end  of  the  walk. 

We  dined  at  Lokeren,  which  is  about  eight 
miles  from  St.  Nicholas  and  twelve  from  Ghent. 
Here  we  had  pewter  plates  and  sour  red  wine, 
but  the  other  fare  was  good.  There  is  an  odd 
sign  here  of  a  stag's  head,  in  which  real  horns 
are  fixed  upon  a  painted  head.  Some  few 
miles  farther  a  party  of  men  and  women  were 
playing  bowls,  all  in  great  glee,  and  some  of 
them  slapping  their  thighs  as  an  expression  of 
delight.  We  saw  many  women  making  lace 
in  their  houses,  —  an  employment  which  seems 
to  be  wholly  domestic  in  these  countries.  Pas- 
ture and  bleaching  grounds  near  Ghent,  where 
we  arrived  at  five  o'clock,  and  were  joyfully 
recognised  by  the  good  people  of  the  Hotel  de 
Flandres,  from  the  Master  and  Mistress  down 
to  the  little  boy  who  ascended  the  Belfrey  with 
us. 

Having  in  consequence  of  the  advanced  sea* 
[      243      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

son  dismissed  the  open  carriage,  we  had  taken 
a  close  one,  and  a  different  coachman  from 
Brussels.  This  man  had  been  employed  in 
conveying  the  wounded  from  Waterloo  to  the 
hospital  in  that  city,  and  what  he  had  seen 
while  upon  that  service,  he  said,  had  made 
him  ill.  He  enquired  of  Koster  what  was  the 
meaning  of  "  O  Lord  I "  which  he  said  the  men 
repeatedly  cried  out  along  the  road.  Some  of 
our  officers  whom  he  had  seen  lying  on  the 
field  were  pierced  with  more  than  twenty  bayo- 
net wounds. 

The  Vardons  arrived  at  Ghent  half  an  hour 
after  us,  and  we  supt  at  the  table  d'hote. 
Here  Koster  had  a  long  conversation  with 
a  high-spirited  young  Frenchman,  who  hated 
Buonaparte,  despised  the  Bourbons,  and 
groaned  over  the  state  of  his  country.  The 
Marshals,  he  said,  were  all  brigands,  except 
one  or  two,  instancing  Clarke  and  Macdonald 
as  exceptions  ;  and  when  we  mentioned  Oudi- 
not,  he  exclaimed  with  great  delight,  "  Oudinot 
is  my  countryman !  "  Louis,  he  said,  ought  to 
have  hanged  some  thirty  of  the  chief  brigands, 
and  broken  all  the  officers  of  the  rebel  army ; 
[       244       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

and  in  this  I  heartily  agreed  with  him.  The 
Duke  de  Berry  seems  to  be  detested  by  every- 
body ;  he  must  have  a  rare  union  of  demerits 
to  be  regarded  at  once  with  so  much  contempt 
and  abhorrence.  In  one  point  this  young 
Frenchman,  however,  was  mistaken  ;  he  insisted 
that  the  Old  Guard  cared  nothing  for  Buona- 
parte, that  it  was  for  their  country  they  felt  and 
fought,  and  that  they  would  have  fought  with 
the  same  good-will  for  the  King.  Now  our 
coachman  had  seen  one  of  this  guard  who  had 
lost  both  thighs,  and  in  that  condition  lain  four 
and  twenty  hours  upon  the  field  ;  he  had  seen 
that  man  wave  his  hat  over  his  head  for  Buona- 
parte, and  heard  him  exclaim  Vive  VEmpe- 
reur^  an  sacre  nom  de  Dieu  !  It  is  beyond 
all  doubt  that  there  was  a  very  strong  military 
feeling  in  Buonaparte's  favour. 

Tuesday,  24  Oct. 

feEVEN  leagues  to  Courtray ;  the  road  comes 
frequently  near  the  river  Lys.  We  saw  some 
barges  drawn  against  the  stream  by  six  or 
seven  men,  with  much  greater  exertion  than  I 
should  have  looked  for  in  so  level  a  country. 
[      245      ] 


JO  U  R  N  A  li 

Vines  are  in  some  places  here  trained  upon  the 
roofs  of  the  houses,  and  the  appearance  is  very 
pleasing.  Some  houses  have  three  or  four  rows 
of  tiles  at  the  bottom  of  the  thatch ;  and  the 
thatch  at  the  points  of  the  house  is  usually 
tied  in  some  fantastic  form. 

During  this  day's  journey  we  had  some 
cloud  scenery  of  the  grandest  character.  At 
one  time  the  clouds  were  cimiulated  till  they 
resembled  a  range  of  Alpine  mountains  cov- 
ered with  snow,  and  with  the  appearance  of 
deep  rifts  and  drifts,  the  sun  shining  upon 
them.  At  another  they  extended  in  one  dark 
mass  above  us,  but  terminated  on  the  west  in 
a  line  of  Hghter  sky,  over  which  a  curtain  liter- 
ally seemed  to  be  let  down  when  the  rain  began 
to  fall  there  in  heavy  streaks. 

The  effect  of  the  light  falling  upon  the  red 
sails  of  a  windmill  in  motion  was  equally  sin- 
gular and  striking.  In  some  places  there  was 
a  most  abominable  stench  of  manure.  Vespa- 
sian might  weU  lay  a  tax  upon  such  a  com- 
modity if  it  were  used  in  this  way. 

We  put  up  at  the  Golden  Lion,  which  is  an 

[      246      ] 


JOURNAL 

excellent  hotel,  but  the  charges  higher  than 
they  ought  to  be.  We  had  the  comfort  of 
a  grate  and  a  good  fire  in  the  sitting-room : 
the  hearth  was  composed  of  bricks  set  within 
a  brazen  plate  of  this  shape  """V^^^,,^""  t^® 
brass  where  it  was  straight  being  more  than 
a  foot  wide.  There  were  some  prints  in  the 
room  engraved  at  Augsburg,  from  English 
originals ;  the  subjects  were  from  Werter,  and 
I  think  they  were  Bunbary's  designs.  Here 
I  find  that  the  oiled-paper  table-tops  fit  like 
a  cover,  over  a  deal  frame.  They  make  up 
thirty-three  beds  in  this  house,  and  one  wo- 
man, who  is  the  only  female  servant,  does  the 
whole  work,  and  cleans  the  house  also.  We 
had  English  knives  here,  and  the  dessert  was 
served  upon  fine  old  China.  This  is  the  only 
place  where  we  were  asked  if  we  had  brought 
our  own  sheets  or  would  use  those  of  the  house. 
Everything  was  very  good  here,  but  the  charges 
higher  than  we  had  found  them  anywhere  else 
except  at  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

The  Place  at  Courtray  has  one  fine  object, 
a  tower  which  appears  to  rise  very  incongru- 

[      247       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

ously  from  some  modern  houses.  The  town 
has  little  appearance  of  life,  and  yet  little  of 
decay.  There  were  some  pitiful  caricatures  of 
the  English  in  a  shop  window :  one  of  them 
represented  Mylord  Plumpudding  avec  My- 
lady  Corrhee.     Nothing  could  be  worse. 

Here  I  bought  the  "Histoire  Monimien- 
taire  du  Nord  des  Graules  appuyee  sur  les 
Traces  marquantes  et  les  Vestiges  durables 
des  Anciennes  Colonies  qui  ont  illustre  les 
Fastes  Belgiques.  Par  J.  B.  Lambioz.  T.  1'." 
Printed  at  Mons,  without  a  date,  but  about 
1800  I  suppose.  As  the  work  of  a  curious 
and  credulous  man,  who  has  brought  together 
the  antiquities,  traditions,  and  fabulous  history 
of  these  parts,  with  some  learning  and  little 
discrimination,  I  am  glad  to  have  met  with  it, 
and  wish  it  had  been  continued  thro'  three 
volumes  more,  as  the  author  proposed. 

Wednesday ,  26  Oct. 

J.  HE  Landlord  enquired  which  of  our  party 

had  slept  in  No.  29,  and  having  learnt  that 

Koster  was  the  person,  told  him  the  Duke  of 

[      248      ] 


JOURNAL 

York  had  slept  in  that  same  bed  and  chamber 
five  and  twenty  years  ago. 

Courtray  appeared  to  most  advantage  as  we 
left  it.  Two  short  leagues  to  Menin,  over  a 
dismal  country,  but  of  good  pasture.  Menin, 
which  once  exported  much  cloth,  especially  to 
Spain,  and  whose  breweries  were  famous  far 
and  wide,  is  now  a  decayed  and  dolorous  place, 
—  strikingly  so  to  those  who  remember  how 
frequently  it  was  mentioned  in  the  Grazettes 
during  the  first  years  of  the  war.  The  build- 
ings are  in  ruins;  grass  is  growing  in  the 
streets;  the  works  are  neglected;  they  are 
cultivated  in  some  places,  and  one  part  is  con- 
verted into  a  cabbage  garden.     Sic  transit ! 

Three  longer  leagues  over  a  pleasanter 
country  to  Ypres.  The  scenery  becomes  more 
English,  and  in  one  part  there  were  some 
fields  slovenly  enough  to  look  like  bad  Eng- 
lish farming.  On  our  left  we  had  some  rising 
ground,  and  the  remarkable  hill  upon  which 
Cassel  stands,  in  the  distance.  We  saw  a 
great  many  windmills  in  this  stage,  and  very 
picturesque  ones ;  some  had  the  door  very  high 
above  the  groimd,  others  with  a  round  stone 
[      249      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

building  at  the  base.  Upon  arriving  at  Ypres 
we  found  that  there  were  three  thousand  Han- 
overians quartered  in  the  town. 

We  drove  to  two  inns,  both  in  the  Great 
Place:  the  one  appeared  very  bad,  and  at 
the  other,  which  was  little  better,  the  extreme 
incivility  of  the  people  determined  us  not  to 
stop ;  so  we  sallied  in  search  of  something 
less  repulsive,  and  found  civil  treatment  at  the 
Tete  d'Or. 

While  dinner  was  preparing  I  went  out  with 
Koster  and  Mr.  Nash  to  see  what  this  decayed 
and  mournful  city  might  contain.  In  the  days 
of  its  prosperity  the  Great  Place  must  have 
been  one  of  the  finest  things  in  the  Low 
Countries,  —  perhaps  the  very  finest.  For 
tho'  the  Town-House  has  not  the  florid  beauty 
of  those  at  Louvain  and  Brussels,  it  is  more 
imposing  than  either,  from  its  extent  and 
grandeur  and  position.  I  know  of  no  build- 
ing wherewith  it  may  be  compared.  It  has  a 
character  of  its  own,  and  might  be  taken 
either  for  a  palace  or  for  the  most  magnificent 
of  colleges. 

In  the  Cathedral,  which  stands  behind  this 
[      250      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

noble  edifice,  there  are  some  respectable  pic- 
tures. One,  which  the  Sacristan  pointed  out 
to  us,  represented  an  attack  upon  the  city  by 
the  English  in  former  times.  Over  one  of  the 
doors  within  there  are  some  life-large  figures 
of  Saints  and  Bishops  painted  on  wood,  and 
cut  out  to  resemble  life.  In  a  land  which  has 
been  above  all  others  prolific  of  great  painters, 
one  wonders  to  find  such  things  as  these.  It 
is  remarkable  that  the  very  name  of  Janse- 
nius,  "  wherewith  all  Europe  rung  from  side 
to  side,  "  is  now  utterly  unknown  to  the  very 
people  who  shew  this  church  wherein  he  is 
buried.  I  wished  to  have  seen  his  grave. 
The  Sacristan  knew  of  no  such  person,  — per- 
haps, he  said,  it  might  be  the  Bishop  Henry, 
whose  surname  had  not  been  added  upon  his 
tombstone,  and  who  died  in  16  7-,  —  the  tomb- 
stone having  apparently  either  been  prepared 
in  his  lifetime,  or  by  some  strange  neglect  left 
in  this  unfinished  state  by  his  representatives. 
But  Jansenius'  name  was  Cornelius ;  and  this 
was  the  grave  of  Henrik  van  Halmale,  the 
fourth  Bishop  after  him,  who  died  in  1677. 
Perhaps  the  monument  of  Jansenius  may  have 
[      251      ] 


JOURNAL 

been  removed  thro'  the  influence  of  the 
Jesuits:  perhaps  the  materials  were  worth 
something,  and  it  may  have  been  demolished 
in  the  days  of  revolutionary  plunder.  It  was 
a  disappointment  to  me  not  to  find  it,  tho'  I 
have  no  respect  for  his  person  and  a  thorough 
detestation  for  his  doctrine,  which  is  mere 
Calvinism. 

Seeing  that  an  old  plan  of  Ypres  made  in 
the  fifteenth  century  had  been  newly  engraved, 
and  was  announced  for  publication  by  bills 
upon  the  walls,  I  went  to  the  shop  where  it 
was  sold.  I  did  not,  however,  purchase  it, 
because  from  its  size  it  could  not  have  been 
carried  without  inconvenience  and  injury ;  but 
there  were  some  books  in  the  shop,  among 
which,  few  as  they  were,  I  found  some  that  I 
was  very  glad  to  obtain.  The  one  was  a  Dutch 
Poem  upon  the  Great  Earthquake  at  Lisbon 
by  Frans  de  Hals  :  a  quarto,  with  some  large 
vignettes,  and  an  admirable  portrait  of  the 
author  by  Houbreken,  —  the  face  being  most 
remarkable  for  length  of  narrow  chin  and 
prominence  of  nose.  Disagreeable  the  counte- 
nance is  not,  for  it  is  mild  and  intellectual, 
[       252       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

but  nothing  can  well  be  imagined  more  un- 
handsome ;  and  yet  the  Author  has  printed 
some  verses  written  in  his  fiftieth  year  on  the 
effects  produced  upon  him  by  a  kiss  from  a 
sweet  mouth!  Some  of  his  poems  are  upon 
a  less  trivial  subject  —  the  benefit  he  had  de- 
rived from  Mrs.  Stephens'  remedy  for  the 
Stone. 

My  other  purchase  was  a  collection,  and  I 
believe  a  compleat  one,  of  Vondal's  Works, 
which  must  have  been  made  with  no  little 
care,  the  plays  having  all  been  printed  sepa- 
rately, and  none  of  the  other  compositions 
collectively,  except  two  volumes  of  Poems.  The 
portrait  of  him  in  his  eighty-fourth  year  is 
the  very  finest  engraved  portrait  I  ever  saw, 
for  effect  and  breadth  —  and  yet  it  has  no 
engraver's  name  affixed  to  it.  The  collection 
is  in  eleven  volumes  foolscap  quarto,  and  I  paid 
forty  francs  for  it,  —  a  great  prize.  At  Brus- 
sels I  wished  to  have  bought  the  works  of 
Jacob  Cats,  who  of  all  writers,  in  all  languages, 
best  deserves  to  be  called  the  Household  Poet ; 
but  for  the  best  edition,  in  one  huge  folio, 
Verbeyst  asked  one  hundred  and  forty  francs ; 
[      263      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

and  tempting  as  the  book  was,  I  might  as  well 
think  of  buying  a  Tortoise-shell  Tom  Cat  as 
giving  such  a  price  for  it. 

This  purchase  will  always  make  me  recollect 
Ypres  with  pleasure.  The  stove  at  our  Inn 
contained  the  fire  in  a  well-shaped  urn.  The 
wine  was  bad  there,  especially  a  weak,  sweet 
wine  to  which  they  give  the  name  of  Tours, 
and  which  is,  of  course,  a  wine  from  the 
Loire,  —  about  the  worst  in  kind  I  ever  tasted. 
We  had  met  with  it  before  at  La  Belle  Alli- 
ance. In  general,  when  the  wines  have  not 
been  good,  we  have  found  the  Rhenish  the 
best ;  being  the  best  of  good  wines,  it  seems 
even  when  bad  to  preserve  its  superiority. 

The  Coachmen  were  very  much  out  of  hu- 
mour with  Ypres.  "  C'est  une  vilaine  ville ! " 
said  the  one.  "  You  have  not  fared  well  then  ?  " 
was  the  reply;  upon  which  he  answered,  "C'est 
ne  pas  Bruxelles,"  and  declared  that  he  would 
never  again  take  this  road  with  any  person. 
The  country  immediately  without  the  walls  is 
in  pasturage,  drear  and  ugly.  It  soon  im- 
proved, and  again  became  of  English  character. 
Hop-poles  are  laid  up  in  the  fields  in  stacks, 
i:      254      ] 


JOURNAL 

and  tliatched  over.  The  stench  of  manure 
upon  this  day's  journey  was  sometimes  almost 
intolerable;  some  of  it  was  in  barrels:  it 
was  plain  even  to  nasal  demonstration  that 
nothing  is  wasted  here,  which  can  be  applied 
to  this  useful  purpose.  The  distances  are 
irregularly  estimated  by  short  leagues,  strong 
leagues,  and  leagues  of  the  post;  the  latter 
are  like  our  posting  miles  in  England,  measured 
for  the  profit  of  the  posting  concern.  Indeed, 
we  have  everywhere  found  the  distance  less 
than  it  was  represented.  The  barriers  are 
each  a  post  league  asunder.  There  are  neither 
mile  nor  league  stones,  and  when  you  come  to 
a  directing  post  it  expresses  the  distance  by 
the  fractions  of  a  post,  —  thus  2/4  vers  YpreSy 
2/4^  vers  Poperinge.  It  is  a  stage  of  two 
short  leagues  from  Ypres  to  Poperinge,  and 
there  I  am  now  writing  by  a  comfortable  wood 
fire,  in  a  bedroom  at  the  Grand  Cerf.  The 
fireplace  of  this  chamber  is  as  large  as  the 
ingle  of  an  old  farmhouse,  and  when  we  came 
in  it  was  closed  by  a  chimney  board  big  enough 
to  have  served  as  a  scene  for  a  strolling  com- 
pany of  players.  The  people  are  civil  and 
[      255      ] 


JOURNAL 

obliging.  They  sent  us  good  coffee  in  an  old, 
battered,  ill-shaped  coffee-pot,  which  had  once 
been  plated,  but  now  the  copper  was  every- 
where appearing ;  the  cups  were  of  beautiful 
French  porcelain,  made  at  Nantz. 

Thursday,  26  Oct. 

W  E  breakfasted  in  the  public  room,  which 
was  in  no  better  stile  than  the  rest  of  the  poor 
house  ;  it  was,  however,  furnished  with  some 
prints  which,  tho'  poor  in  themselves,  were  in- 
teresting to  me  for  their  subjects.  One  which 
bore  for  its  title  "  La  Lionne  reconnoissante," 
represented  the  lying  story  of  the  woman  at 
Buenos  Ayres  which  is  told  by  Charlevoix 
on  the  authority  of  I  know  not  what  fellow 
fabler.  Its  companion  was  upon  a  truer 
tale,  a  mother  falling  on  her  knees  before  a 
Lion  who  had  got  loose  in  the  streets  of  Flor- 
ence, and  entreating  him  to  spare  her  child. 
Over  the  chimney  was  an  engraved  portrait, 
which  probably  had  hung  there  from  the  time 
it  was  published,  and  now  recalled  a  long  train 
of  mournful  recollections,  —  it  was  the  por- 
trait of  Elizabeth  Philippe  Marie  HeCene  de 
[       256       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

France^  Soeur  de  Monseigneur  le  Dauphin^ 
nee  a  Versailles  le  3  J/ai,  1764. 

The  church  at  Poperinge  is  much  dilapi- 
dated ;  they  are  now  repairing  the  inside,  and 
the  masons  to  my  surprise  were  going  on  with 
their  work  during  mass,  tho'  the  church  was 
as  full  as  the  population  of  the  place  gave  any 
cause  for  expecting.  A  flat  tombstone  from 
the  floor  of  the  church  was  lying  in  the  street. 
I  noticed  one  at  Courtray,  which  had  been  laid 
in  the  pavement.  In  England  we  walk  over 
them  with  indifference  in  a  church  or  church- 
yard ;  it  would  not  be  so  if  we  were  to  see 
them  thus  irreverently  laid  in  the  street.  But 
Forbes  tells  us  that,  during  his  detention  in 
France,  he  saw  tombstones  which  had  been 
taken  from  a  demohshed  church  set  up  as 
tables  in  some  public  tea  gardens  ! 

The  poorest  towns  thro'  which  we  have 
past  have  never  been  without  a  silversmith's 
shop.  There  are  three  or  four  in  this  paltry 
place,  —  so  great  and  universal  is  the  use  of 
trinkets. 

The  coachman  tells  us  that  the  women  dis- 
like the  young  English  officers  for  their  in- 
[      257      ] 


JOURNAL 

civility  and  rudeness,  but  that  they  fear  the 
Prussian ;  the  one  are  discourteous,  the  others 
brutal.  Here  at  Poperinge,  however,  the  Prus- 
sians have  left  a  good  character ;  they  paid  for 
everything  and  behaved  well.  The  English, 
says  Sir  Cochee,  are  in  general  too  brusques  ; 
they  enter  a  house  as  if  it  were  their  own. 
He  observed  that  there  were  two  sorts  of  men 
with  whom  it  was  very  impleasant  to  travel,  the 
parvenus,  and  those  fellows  who,  having  no- 
thing and  being  nobody  at  home,  go  abroad 
and  give  themselves  airs. 

One  of  our  horses  fell  lame  here,  having 
strained  itself  in  its  impatience  at  going  be- 
hind the  heavy  carriage.  There  was  much 
difficulty  in  procuring  another.  —  Past  several 
fields  of  beet  —  the  effects  of  Buonaparte's 
continental  system.  —  Hop-poles  are  laid  up 
much  more  carefully  than  in  England,  and 
I  should  think  must  last  longer  in  conse- 
quence. Some  dozen  are  fixed  upright  in 
the  ground  so  as  to  form  a  parallellogram 
frame,  within  which  the  others  are  laid  at 
length,  and  then  thatched  over ;  these  stacks 
look  like  so  many  huts. 

C       268       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

The  French  Custom  House  is  at  Oost  Cap- 
pelle :  that  on  the  Belgian  side  we  had  past 
without  trouble  or  impediment  at  the  cost  of 
two  or  three  francs ;  and  the  Coachmen  had 
assured  us  that  the  same  facility  would  be 
found  here ;  but  we  met  with  a  sour  and  surly 
Frenchman  who  insisted  upon  opening  every- 
thing. A  younger  and  civiller  man,  whose 
hand  was  itching  for  a  five  franc  piece,  whis- 
pered to  us  that  he  was  very  sorry  for  this, 
but  that  it  was  owing  to  the  presence  of  the 
Superintendent.  In  these  cases  the  Portu- 
guese remedy  is  of  approved  efficacy ;  and  be- 
ing patient  perforce,  we  submitted  to  what  at 
first  was  a  very  rude  overhauling.  The  pass- 
ports were  found  good.  I  had  had  the  pre- 
caution at  Ghent  of  having  all  our  Waterloo 
swords  and  sabres  sewn  up  in  one  wrapper, 
that  we  might  not  unnecessarily  expose  them 
to  the  eyes  of  the  French.  The  smaller  tro- 
phies which  belonged  to  us  were  so  wrapped 
up  among  our  things  that  there  was  little 
chance  of  their  being  seen  unless  every  sepa- 
rate article  were  suspiciously  examined.  Mr. 
Nash's  trunk,  which  was  behind  our  carriage, 
[      269      3 


JOURNAL 

was  produced  the  first ;  and  upon  opening  it, 
the  first  thing  that  appeared,  lying  on  the 
very  top,  was  the  button  of  a  French  uniform, 
bearing  the  Eagle.  At  sight  of  this,  the  old 
Frenchman  muttered  something  in  a  very 
growling  tone,  and  asked  how  that  came  there. 
"  C'est  a  moi,"  replied  poor  Mr.  Nash,  and 
put  it  in  his  pocket,  turning  to  me  with  a  look 
of  such  dolorous  expression  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  help  laughing.  After  opening  and 
examining  three  or  four  trunks,  the  men  began 
to  be  tired,  and  they  began  to  be  civil  also, 
seeing  the  good  humour  and  perfect  unconcern 
with  which  we  submitted  to  the  search.  They 
assured  us  that  this  proceeding  here  would 
save  us  from  a  much  more  rigorous  examina- 
tion at  Bergues  or  Dunkirk,  for  their  certifi- 
cate would  clear  us  at  both  places. 

We  now  thought  all  was  done.  The  trunks 
were  replaced,  and  I  had  again  taken  my  seat 
in  the  carriage,  when  I  was  summoned  into 
the  house  to  show  what  money  I  had  about 
me.  It  was  the  poor  stock  of  a  single  guinea 
and  a  single  Napoleon.  But  upon  my  trea- 
surer, Koster,  among  eight  or  ten  pieces,  four 
[      260      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

false  louis  were  found.  We  had  received 
this  money  from  Danot  the  Banker  at  Brus- 
sels some  days  after  the  Gazette  had  officially 
announced  that  such  counterfeits  were  in  cir- 
culation, and  pointed  out  the  marks  by  which 
they  might  be  distinguished.  Mr.  Nash's  and 
the  Vardons'  were  all  good,  Mr.  Worth,  who 
had  cashed  their  bills,  having  been  scrupu- 
lously and  properly  exact  in  examining  what 
he  gave  them. 

Here  was  an  inconvenient  loss,  because  we 
had  aimed  at  taking  no  more  foreign  coin 
with  us  than  would  clear  us  out  of  the  coun- 
try. But  the  loss  was  likely  to  be  the  least 
unpleasant  part  of  the  business.  The  Super- 
intendent (a  gentlemanly  man)  showed  us  the 
circular  letter  by  which  he  was  enjoined  to 
search  all  travellers  for  this  false  money,  and 
he  laid  some  little  stress,  courteously  but  per- 
ceptibly, upon  the  assumed  (and  probable) 
fact  that  it  was  of  English  manufactory,  which 
we  readily  admitted  they  were  likely  to  be. 
He  must  send  the  four  pieces  to  Dunkirk,  he 
said,  and  an  officer  of  the  customs  must  go 
with  us  to  that  city.  A  feUow  made  ready  at 
[      261      ] 


JOURNAL 

the  word  with  all  speed  to  accompany  us  upon 
this  pleasant  errand.  Upon  this  Koster  ex- 
claimed he  would  rather  lose  the  four  louis  at 
once.  There  was  good  reason  for  this,  for  he 
had  more  money  in  his  dressing-case,  which,  as 
the  case  had  not  been  examined,  he  had  not 
thought  fit  to  produce ;  and  because  he  had 
not  produced  it,  he  was  now  apprehensive  that 
further  search  might  lead  to  a  discovery  of 
more  of  the  same  die,  and  then  assuredly  the 
endeavour  at  concealing  them  would  have 
placed  us  in  a  suspicious  light.  I  understood 
his  fears,  and  joined  with  him  in  declaring 
that  we  did  not  want  to  be  enciunbered  with 
a  custom-house  Officer  for  the  sake  of  four 
louis ;  if  they  were  false  they  might  as  well 
be  destroyed  where  they  were,  and  we  would 
throw  them  into  the  fire,  or  cast  them  into  the 
nearest  ditch.  But  the  Superintendent  had 
no  authority  to  destroy  them,  nor  instructions 
how  to  dispose  of  such  false  money  as  he 
found ;  and  when  we  proposed  to  leave  them  in 
his  hands,  he  expressed  an  apprehension  that 
we  might  suspect  him  of  converting  them  to 
his  own  use,  —  an  objection,  however,  which 
[      262      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

soon  yielded  to  our  professions  concerning  his 
honour.  I  am  ashamed  of  the  uncharitable 
opinion  which  I  formed  at  the  time ;  for 
upon  reflection  I  am  satisfied  that  the  gentle- 
man acted  toward  us  both  honourably  and 
kindly,  —  honourably  in  believing  that  we  were 
not  concerned  in  circulating  base  coin,  and 
kindly  in  sparing  us  the  expence  and  trouble 
to  which  he  might  have  put  us,  and  which 
might  have  been  greater  than  he  was  aware  of ; 
for  upon  examining  Roster's  remaining  stock 
three  others  of  the  same  die  were  discovered. 
The  Banker's  conduct  was  inexcusable ;  he 
was,  moreover,  the  only  Banker  who  made  us 
pay  ^  per  cent,  for  receiving  gold  instead 
of  silver.  So  we  left  the  louis,  and  pro- 
ceeded. 

This  Custom  House  is  about  five  miles  from 
Poperinge,  —  from  Poperinge  to  Bergues  be- 
ing as  many  leagues.  There  is  high  ground 
in  the  distance  on  the  left,  and  that  eminence 
on  which  Cassel  stands  is  conspicuous.  The 
country  is  well  cultivated ;  but  along  the  whole 
line  from  Courtray  there  are  no  marks  of  pros- 
perity ;  the  towns  are  dead  and  stagnant,  the 
[      263      ] 


JOURNAL 

villages  without  the  Flemish  and  Brabantine 
characteristics  of  cheerfulness  and  comfort. 
The  approach  to  Bergues  presents  a  not  un- 
pleasing  scene,  —  the  church  tower ;  within 
the  works  and  on  the  summit  of  them  a  sort 
of  pyramid  or  obelisk  of  open  wood-work  (I 
know  not  of  what  use,  nor  why  erected),  —  the 
fortifications,  a  few  poplars,  and  an  open  green 
country.  We  past  moat  after  moat,  and  gate 
after  gate,  till  at  the  inner  gate  our  passports 
were  required,  examined  and  returned  to  us  with 
much  civility  by  a  man  with  a  wooden  leg. 
In  another  minute,  just  as  we  had  turned  the 
corner  close  at  hand,  a  blackguard-looking  fel- 
low stopt  the  coach  and  again  demanded  them. 
Mr.  Vardon  said  they  had  already  been  in- 
spected. The  fellow  instantly  cried  out,  "  Send 
two  armed  men  immediately ! "  and  two  soldiers 
stept  forward  from  the  gate  house  to  the  horses' 
heads.  "We  who  saw  this,  and  had  only  heard 
the  call,  were  compleatly  ignorant  of  what 
might  be  the  cause.  Edith  was  alarmed,  and 
Koster,  thinking  at  once  that  the  Buonapart- 
ists  were  making  a  new  struggle  in  France, 
said,  "  Things  are  evidently  in  a  very  disturbed 
[      264      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

state  here."  On  we  moved  at  a  funeral  pace, 
the  two  soldiers,  like  mutes,  leading  the  way, 
and  the  whole  population  of  this  melancholy 
town  crowding  to  the  doors  and  windows,  and 
into  the  street,  to  see  a  party  of  English 
travellers  who  had  been  put  under  arrest.  At 
length  we  reached  the  middle  of  the  Great 
Place,  where  the  Commandant,  coming  out  of 
an  Hotel,  saw  us,  and  came  to  enquire  into  the 
matter.  "  Is  it,  Sire,"  said  he,  "  that  you  have 
no  passports  ?  "  Mr.  Vardon  presented  them, 
and  told  him  what  had  past.  He  looked  at  the 
papers,  and  saying  that  all  was  perfectly  cor- 
rect, begged  us  to  proceed,  and  reprimanded 
the  fellow  for  his  officious  interference.  The 
soldiers  were  dismissed,  and  we  drove  into  the 
hotel  from  which  the  Commandant  had  come 
out. 

Here  were  the  best  beds  which  we  had  seen 
since  we  landed  on  the  continent.  While  the 
horses  rested,  we  had  some  bread  and  cheese 
and  mdijBFerent  wine,  for  which  we  were  charged 
very  dearly.  The  Flemish  language  seems  as 
common  here  as  the  French,  the  shopkeepers 
using  it.  The  Belfrey  is  a  fine  tower ;  the 
[       266       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

town  itself,  like  all  upon  this  line,  mournful 
and  in  decay. 

Two  leagues  to  Dunkirk,  but  very  short 
ones,  along  a  dreary  country,  and  for  the  most 
part  of  the  way  by  the  side  of  a  canal,  between 
the  road  and  the  seacoast.  Along  this  canal, 
three  women  and  one  man  were  with  much 
labour  towing  a  barge.  Our  certificates  from 
the  frontier  Custom  House  saved  us  from 
any  farther  examination  of  baggage,  and  we 
alighted  without  impediment  or  delay  of  any 
kind  at  the  Hotel  d'Angleterre,  —  an  excel- 
lent house,  where  the  people  speak  English. 
One  room  is  hung  with  a  paper  representing 
the  whole  process  of  hunting,  —  a  sort  of 
panorama.  In  another,  to  which  we  removed 
as  preferring  a  grate  to  a  stove,  there  is  a  set 
of  ten  prints  upon  the  history  of  Charles  L, 
some  of  them  very  finely  executed  by  Baron 
and  Depuis,  others  by  Vandergucht,  Epicie, 
Du  Bosc,  and  J.  Harris.  They  were  published 
by  Thomas  and  John  Bowles,  1727.  I  did  not 
think  we  had  had  any  such  good  engraving  at 
that  time,  and  it  is  remarkable  that   neither 

[      266      ] 


JOURNAL 

Mr.  Nash  or  I  had  ever  seen  any  of  the  series 
before. 

The  floor  of  the  room  is  painted  red.  The 
grate,  which  is  for  burning  wood,  stands  upon 
a  wide,  open  hearth,  and  its  brass  ornaments 
have  a  sort  of  tin  extinguisher  to  cover  them. 
There  is  one  pair  of  tongs  of  enormous  weight, 
shaped  Uke  pincers,  and  another  pair  of  very 
light  ones  made  in  the  form  of  sugar  tongs. 

When  we  went  into  the  streets,  the  first 
beggar  who  accosted  us  was  an  Englishwoman. 
The  tower  which  serves  as  a  sea  mark  has  no 
church  belonging  to  it ;  there  is  a  church  op- 
posite, to  which  a  new  and  fine  facade  has  been 
added.  We  went  in  and  heard  good  music 
there;  a  man  walking  up  and  down  during 
the  service  with  a  whip  in  his  hand,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  dogs.  There  are  many  large 
open  spaces  in  the  town,  which  show  that 
groimd  is  of  little  value.  A  tight-rope  dancer 
was  exhibiting  in  the  Great  Place,  and  had 
collected  a  large  crowd. 


[       267       ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

Friday,  27  Oct. 

VY  E  had  escaped  from  the  huge,  high,  uncom- 
fortable Flemish  pillows  and  slept  last  night 
after  the  manner  of  our  own  country,  and  in 
a  good  bedroom,  which  was  carpeted.  The 
charges  at  this  excellent  Inn  were  reasonable 
enough,  except  that  of  four  francs  for  candles 
(the  imposition  of  supplying  you  with  wax 
lights  having  reached  this  place).  Five  francs 
were  charged  for  our  evening  fire,  one  for  that 
by  which  we  breakfasted.  Fuel  is  necessarily 
dear,  where  wood  is  burnt  and  brought  from 
a  distance.  Wine  has  been  everywhere  charged 
at  a  most  imposing  rate,  but  least  of  any  place 
at  Liege.  It  has  seldom  or  never  been  below 
four  francs  (3/4d),  more  frequently  five,  six, 
and  even  higher.  Here  in  their  list  we  found 
Ports  and  Oporto  marked  as  two  distinct 
wines  at  six  francs  each.  What  was  here 
done  with  Port  has  been  everywhere  done 
with  Claret  and  Burgundy,  under  different 
names  and  different  prices  all  comes  out  of 
the  same  binn. 

We  left  Dunkirk  after  breakfast.    The  road 
[      268      ] 


J  O  U  B  N  A  li 

is  a  straight  and  raised  pavee^  with  a  row  of 
pollard  willows  on  the  left,  and  on  the  right  a 
canal,  half  choked.  Along  this  canal  there 
are  very  many  stands  for  fishing.  An  appa- 
ratus such  as  we  first  observed  at  Ostend  is 
fixed  to  a  stake  in  the  middle  of  the  canal, 
which  is  in  some  places  so  filled  up  that  there 
are  paths  made  to  these  stakes.  The  sand- 
hills or  downs  (unde  Dunkirk^  were  in  sight, 
and  we  saw  a  great  many  Royston  Crows.  In 
one  place  there  was  a  dry  hedge  constructed 
of  reeds.  The  country  is  of  the  most  dolorous 
and  dreary  kind.  Halfway  (a  nominal  five 
leagues)  is  Gravelines.  Before  we  entered 
that  place  we  past  a  burial-ground,  in  which 
all  the  ornaments  are  black,  with  inscriptions 
in  white ;  the  shape  either  a  simple  cross,  or  a 
cross  with  a  triangle  at  the  crossing  part,  for 
the  inscription.  We  found  civil  people  at  the 
Inn,  and  charges  so  moderate  as  to  be  strictly 
honest,  three  and  a  half  francs  for  a  bottle  of 
wine  with  bread  and  cheese,  —  we  had  been 
charged  eighteen  at  Bergues  for  the  same  fare, 
with  only  an  additional  bottle. 

The  fortifications  of  Gravelines  have  been 
[       269       ] 


JOURNAL 

very  strong,  and  probably  may  still  be  so,  the' 
they  exhibit  marks  of  decay.  Indeed,  the 
whole  town  bears  dismal  symptoms  of  deca- 
dence, and  the  church  tower  in  the  Great 
Place  is  cracked  from  top  to  bottom  in  so  many 
places  that  I  wonder  how  it  can  resist  a  high 
wind. 

The  road  to  Calais  is  as  dismal  as  that 
which  we  had  already  past.  Only  in  one  place 
there  was  a  scene  which  the  contrast  made 
pleasing,  —  a  few  houses  embowered  among 
high  trees,  at  some  little  distance  on  the  left. 
We  seldom  lost  sight  of  the  sand-hills  and 
never  obtained  sight  of  the  sea.  The  villages 
thro'  which  we  past  were  dirty,  and  the  people 
as  dirty  as  their  habitations.  Near  Calais 
there  is  another  burial-ground,  in  the  same 
ghastly  fashion  ;  for  nothing  can  be  more  hid- 
eous and  abominable  than  the  black,  wooden 
monuments  such  as  I  have  described. 

At  Calais  we  had  neither  difficulty  nor 
trouble  about  passports;  in  no  place  does  it 
seem  more  the  system  to  "  welcome  the  com- 
ing, speed  the  parting  guest."  We  drove 
thro'  gate  after  gate,  to  the  number  of  five  or 
[       270       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

six,  and  upon  alighting  in  the  Inn  yard  of 
Quillacq's  Hotel,  were  beset  by  men  thrusting 
their  packet  cards  into  our  hands.  Their  ves- 
sels were  to  sail  on  the  morrow  morning. 
When  they  began  to  disperse,  a  young  Eng- 
lish officer  in  uniform,  of  very  prepossessing 
countenance  and  manners,  approached,  and 
told  us  that  the  Lord  Chichester,  Post-Office 
packet,  which  he  commanded,  would  sail  in  an 
hour,  and  that  the  wind  was  fair.  I  objected 
that  we  could  not  get  our  trimks  thro'  the 
Custom  House  in  time ;  but  he  undertook  to 
have  that  business  managed,  and  accordingly 
we  resolved  to  go  with  him,  because  this  packet 
was  sure  to  be  weU  manned,  and  at  this  season 
a  fair  wind  was  not  to  be  lost.  The  Commis- 
sionaire despatched  the  passports  and  the  lug- 
gage without  any  trouble  on  our  part,  and  at 
a  very  trifling  expence.  We  hurried  down  an 
excellent  dinner,  with  wine  from  which  we 
were  loth  to  part,  and  proceeded  at  haK  past 
five  to  the  pier.  The  packet  was  lying  along 
side,  and  the  descent  to  it  inconvenient  and 
frightful  enough  for  women,  by  a  ladder  much 
less  upright  than  we  are  used  to.  We  made 
[       271       ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 

our  way  thro'  a  great  crowd  and  much  dirt. 
Mr.  Nash,  who  parted  from  us  here  to  proceed 
in  our  smaller  coach  to  Paris,  accompanied  us 
to  the  water  side.  We  parted  with  mutual 
regret,  but  with  a  promise  that  he  would  visit 
us  next  summer  at  Keswick.  We  saw  him 
watching  us  from  the  pier,  as  long  as  we  could 
distinguish  anything.  A  fair  and  gentle  wind 
carried  us  out,  and  as  soon  as  we  were  out  of 
the  French  harbour  we  saw  the  light  on  the 
North  Foreland,  —  like  a  Star. 

The  Captain  promised  us  a  four  hours'  pas- 
sage, provided  the  wind  should  continue  as  it 
then  was ;  he  could  not  enter  Dover,  he  said, 
till  the  morning  tide,  but  a  boat  would  come 
out  and  land  the  passengers.  The  wind,  how- 
ever, increased,  and  we  were  obliged  to  lie-to 
under  bare  poles  all  night,  the  men  declaring 
that  they  never  saw  the  weather  look  dirtier. 
In  the  evening  as  it  darkened  I  had  a  good 
opportunity  of  observing  the  phosphorescent 
appearance  of  the  sea.  There  was  no  moon 
and  the  night  was  cloudy ;  but  on  looking  over 
the  side  of  the  vessel,  the  water  appeared  as 

[      272      ] 


JOURNAL 

if  it  were  reflecting  the  brightest  moonlight. 
The  less  brilliant  parts  of  the  water  had  ex- 
actly the  appearance  of  light  clouds  in  moon- 
light, floating  fast  along  a  dark,  blue  sky. 
Brighter  spots,  like  splendid  stars,  or  more 
accurately  like  glow-worms,  shot  by.  About 
an  hour  after  midnight  I  went  on  deck  again. 
It  was  then  blowing  hard,  and  the  tops  of  the 
waves  all  ai'ound  flashed  as  they  rose  and 
feU. 

The  morning  dawned  most  inauspiciously. 
Nothing  could  look  worse  than  the  sky,  and 
the  Captain  expressed  his  doubts  whether  he 
should  be  able  to  enter  the  port.  This  sus- 
pense did  not  continue  long.  As  soon  as  he 
could  distinguish  the  flag  on  the  pier  to  denote 
that  there  was  water  enough  for  entering,  the 
vessel  was  steered  for  the  harbour.  The  cool- 
ness of  the  young  Captain,  the  activity  and 
steadiness  of  the  men,  and  the  precision  with 
which  they  turned  the  corner,  approaching  so 
closely  to  the  Pier  that  it  was  necessary  to 
throw  out  a  fender,  were  equally  striking,  and 
formed  altogether  a  scene  which  repaid  me  for 

[      273      ] 


J  O  U  R  N  A  li 


the  anxiety  of  the  night.  Immediately  we 
were  in  smooth  water,  and  we  landed  safely 
on  English  ground  by  seven  o'clock,  on  the 
morning  of  Saturday,  Oct.  28. 


THE    END 


THIS  EDITION  COMPRISES  FIVE  HUNDRED  AND 
NINETEEN  COPIES  PRINTED  AT  THE  RIVERSIDE 
PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS,  U.  S.  A.  FIVE 
HUNDRED  COPIES  ARE  NUMBERED  AND  FOR  SALE 

NO.  3/ 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


¥28  T93a 


,g£P  ^0  i;tt^, 


'i     11     MAR  3 11975 
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